niSTOEY OF ENGLAND

invaders as England. Her coast lay near to the ports whencethey sailed; nor was any part of our island so far distant fromthe sea as to be secure from attack. The same atrocitieswhich had attended the victory of the Saxon over the Celt■were now, after the lapse of ages, suffered by the Saxon atthe hand of the Dane. Civilisation, just as it began to rise,was met by this blow, and sank down once more. Largecolonies of adventurers from theBaltic established themselveson the eastern shores, spread gradually westward, and, sup-ported by constant reinforcements from beyond the sea,aspired to the dominion of the whole realm. The strugglebetween the two fierce Teutonic breeds lasted during sixgenerations. Each was alternately paramount. Cruel mas-sacres followed by cruel retribution, provinces wasted, con-vents plundered, and cities rased to the ground, make up thegreater part of the history of those evil days. At length theNorth ceased to send forth a constant stream of fresh de-predators, and from that time the mutual aversion of theraces began to subside. Intermarriage became frequent.The Danes learned the religion of the Saxons; and thus onecause of deadly animosity was removed. The Danish andSaxon tongues, both dialects of one wide-spread language,were blended together. But the distinction between the twonations was by no means effaced, when an event took placewhich prostrated both, in common slavery and degradation,at the feet of a third people.

The Normans were then the foremost race of Christendom.Their valour and ferocity had made them conspicuous amongthe rovers whom Scandinavia had sent forth to ravageWestern Europe. Their sails were long the terror of bothcoasts of the channel. Their arms were repeatedly carriedfar into the heart of the Carlovingian empire, and werevictorious under the walls of Maestricht and Paris. At lengthone of the feeble heirs of Charlemagne ceded to the strangers