BEFORE THE RESTORATION.

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a fertile province, watered by a noble river, and contiguous ch.4p.to the sea which was their favourite element. In that provincethey founded a mighty state, • which gradually extended its in-fluence over the neighbouring principalities of Britanny andMaine. Without laying aside that dauntless valour which hadbeen the terror of every land from the Elbe to the Pyrenees,the Normans rapidly acquired all, and more than all, theknowledge and refinement which they found in the countrywhere they settled. Their courage secured their territoryagainst foreign invasion. They established internal order,such as had long been unknown in the Frank empire. Theyembraced Christianity, and with Christianity they learned agreat part of what the clergy had to teach. They abandonedtheir native speech, and adopted the French tongue, in whichthe Latin was the predominant element. They speedilyraised their new language to a dignity and importance whichit had never before possessed. They found it a barbarousjargon; they fixed it in writing; and they employed it inlegislation, in poetry, and in romance. They renounced thatbrutal intemperance to which all the other branches of thegreat German family were too much inclined. The politeluxury of the Norman presented a striking contrast to thecoarse voracity and drunkenness of his Saxon and Danishneighbours. He loved to display his magnificence, not inhuge piles of food and hogsheads a strong drink, but in largeand stately edifices, rich armour, gallant horses, choice fal-cons, well ordered tournaments, banquets delicate rather thanabundant, and wines remarkable rather for their exquisiteflavour than for their intoxicating power. That chivalrousspii-it, which has exercised so powerful an influence on thepolitics, morals, and manners of all the European nations,was found in the highest exaltation among the Norman nobles.Those nobles were distinguished by their graceful bearingand insinuating address. They were distinguished also by