Page:The reign of William Rufus and the accession of Henry the First.djvu/208

 *



brigands who went through the land, wasting the substance of those who tilled it, and snatching the food out of the very mouths of the wretched. A more detailed picture sets before us how, when the King drew near to any place, men fled from their houses into the woods, or anywhere else where they could hide themselves. For the King's followers, when they were quartered in any house, carried off, sold, or burned, whatever was in it. They took the householder's store of drink to wash the feet of their horses, and everywhere offered the cruellest of insults to men's wives and daughters. And for all this no redress was to be had; the law of the land and the discipline of the camp had alike become a dead letter in the case of offenders of this class. The oppressions of the King's immediate company were often complained of in better times and under better kings; but they seem to have reached a greater height under William Rufus than at any time before or after. We hear of no such doings under the settled rule of the Conqueror; under Henry they were checked by a statute of fearful severity. As usual, the picture of the time cannot be so well drawn in any words as those in which the native Chronicler draws it in our own tongue. King William "was very strong and stern over his land and his men and his neighbours, and very much to be feared, and, through evil men's rede that to him ever welcome were, and through his own greediness, he harassed his land with his army and with ungeld. For in his days