from the king and a
pledge of his good faith. But Popa, who was the mother of his son
William, surnamed Longsword, he loved, and we do not hear that the fact
that he had killed her father caused any serious trouble between them.

As Duke of Normandy, Rollo exhibited a political insight and a genius
for administration which in those turbulent days was certainly
remarkable. He had the true welfare of his people at heart, and with a
firm hand he maintained justice, protecting the weak, and restraining
the strong. The laws which he made he enforced with stern impartiality,
and no man could plead birth or privilege before him, if he wantonly
offended. The farmers were Rollo's special care; for warrior though he
was, he well knew that war is destructive, and that the prosperity of a
land must be founded upon productive labor. The peasantry of Normandy
were not slow to discover that they were better off under their new
ruler than they ever had been under the old; and they rewarded Rollo
with a sincere loyalty and devotion. Their confidence in his power to
right wrong, became in the course of time half superstitious; and if any
of them was in peril or suffered at the hands of his enemy, it became
the fashion to shout: "Ha, Rou!"--Rou being a corruption of Raoul, the
French form of Rolf or Rollo. Then it was the duty of everyone who heard
this cry, to hasten to the aid of the sufferer or to pursue his
assailant. It has been asserted that our "hurrah" is derived from this
Norman shout, but I hold this to be more than doubtful.

That Normandy was prosperous under the reign of Rollo, and that its
people were contented, seems, however, to be well established. According
to the legend, so great was the public security that property left on
the highway could be found untouched after days and weeks; the farmer
left his implements in the field without fear of losing them; and theft
and robbery became comparatively rare. In a great measure this was, no
doubt, due to the strict organization which Rollo introduced, and his
insistence upon the personal accountability of each one of his subjects
to himself. For he had learned one most important lesson from his enemy,
Harold the Fair-haired. This king was the first to establish in Europe
what is called the feudal system of land-tenure. He declared all land to
be the property of the crown, and merely held in fief by the nominal
owners. In recognition of the king's proprietorship, the latter,
t