Page:The reign of William Rufus and the accession of Henry the First.djvu/314

 There he was received by one of his special counsellors, William of Arques, a monk of Molesme, and was kept safely in his mother's monastery till all danger was over.

It was clearly not wholly for the sake of such a prince as this that so many Norman leaders, Henry of Coutances among them, had made up their minds that the republican movement at Rouen was to be put down. The moment for putting it down had come. Gilbert of Laigle had by this time, by the strength of his own forces and by the help of the citizens of his party, entered Rouen through the southern gate. His forces now joined the company of Henry; they thus became far more than a match for the citizens of Conan's party, even strengthened as they were by those of the King's men who were in the city. A great slaughter of the citizens followed; the soldiers of Rufus contrived to flee out of the city, and to find shelter in the neighbouring woods; the city was full of death, flight, and weeping; innocent and guilty fell together; Conan and others of the ringleaders were taken prisoners. Conan himself was led into the castle, and, admonito per nuntios comite ut ille a fronte propelleret quos ipse a tergo urgeret." This account does not come in its chronological place, but in William's account of the early life of Henry. And he misconceives the date, placing the revolt of Rouen after the coming of William into Normandy; "Willelmo veniente in Normanniam uti se de fratre Roberto ulcisceretur, comiti obsequelam suam exhibuit [Henricus], Rotomagi positus."]