Page:The reign of William Rufus and the accession of Henry the First.djvu/244

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work of the fifty years' rule of his father was undone in a moment. Normandy at once fell back into the state of anarchy from which William had saved it, the state into which it fell when the elder Robert set forth for Jerusalem. Once more every man did what was right in his own eyes. And the Duke did nothing to hinder them. Again we are brought to that standard of the duties of a sovereign of which we have heard so often, that standard which was reached by the Conqueror and by his younger son, but which neither Robert in this generation nor Stephen in the next strove to reach. Robert, it must always be noticed, is never charged with cruelty or oppression of any kind in his own person. His fault was exactly of the opposite kind. He was so mild and good-natured, so ready to listen to every suppliant, to give to every petitioner, to show mercy to every offender, that he utterly neglected the discharge of the first duty of his office, that which the men of his time called doing justice. William the Great
 * phet; when Robert stepped into his father's place, the

to the long speech of which they form a part; but they are more likely than most parts of it to have been preserved by a trustworthy tradition. On the speech see Church, Anselm, 147.]*
 * [Footnote: must of course take their share of the doubts which can hardly fail to attach