chap, i.]

ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM.

25

tended, the choice of the people; so can any onesay that. Ferocious William said it, too, at hiscoronation, pleading, vain-gloriously, that he hadbeen chosen by the people of all England, andpromising Edward the Confessor’s laws; thoughhe broke that promise so flagrantly a momentafter. Canute, so long before him, had said thesame; and whether or not by birth a Christian,pleased his subjects by becoming a fervent one,and a tolerable monarch; for the Anglo-Saxonoath of allegiance was like that of Arragon, con-ditional—“if not, no!” Canute, while King ofEngland, compiled and published in Denmarkthe Danish civil and military code; also, in theCourt of England, towards that time, was broughtup the first Norwegian legislator. The Anglo-Saxons had become Christians in the seventh, andthe Danes about the eighth century; and as to thenative Britons, it is not worth counting how longpreviously; for what remained of them were re-duced to slavery in a country where it is boastedthat slavery had never existed by law, nor endedby law, but naturally and silently went out ofitself. As to the Normans, they were Christianswhen they left Normandy.

But although Harold had none at all, Williamhad at least a show of right, not only as adopted