The Conquest of England by Wil

liam the Conqueror. "On the 28th of September, 1066, William reached the English shore with 700 ships, and 60,000 fighting men. They landed at Pevensey, near Hastings, three days after King Harold's victory over their friends the Norwegians. First came forth the archers, with their short habits and shorn heads. The cavaliers appeared next, clad in coats-of-mail, and wearing helmets of polished iron, nearly of a conical shape, armed with long and heavy lances, and straight two-edged swords. After these came the workmen of the army, pioneers, carpenters, and smiths; and, last of all, the destined conqueror himself, who, in setting his foot on the land, made a false step, and fell on his face. "God preserve us! a bad omen!" cried the multitude. "What is the matter with you?" promptly demanded the duke; "I have seized on this land with both my hands, and by the splendor of as much as there is of it, it is yours! The army then marched to the town of Hastings, near which they encamped, erected their tents and wooden castles, and furnished them with provi sions. In the meantime, bodies of soldiers overran all the neighboring coun try, plundering and burning as they went. The English fled from their homes, concealed their furniture and cattle, and flocked to the churches and church-yards, which they naturally thought the most secure asylums from enemies who were Christians like themselves. But they found the sanctity of places a poor defence against the cupidity of the human

heart.

Harold, though weary and wounded af ter his victory, hastened from York to defend his country, which he rashly resolved to risk in a battle, with an army four times as numerous as his own. Against this, several of his chiefs remonstrated, advising him to retire to London, ravaging the country by the way, in order to reduce the enemy by famine. But the generous Harold answered, "Shall I ravage the country which has been entrusted to my care? Upon my faith, it would be an act of treason! I will rather try the chances of a battle, with the few men I have, and trust to my own valor and the goodness of my cause." One of his officers said, "We must fight; they come not only to ruin us, but to ruin

our descendants also, and to take from us the country of our ancestors." The English promised, by an unanimous oath, to make neither peace, nor truce, nor treaty, with the invader, but either to die or expel the Normans.

On the ground which thenceforward bore the name of Battle, the Anglo-Saxon lines occupied a long chain of hills, fortified with a rampart of stakes and osier hurdles. In the night of the 13th Octobor, William announced that next day would commence the battle. The priests and monks, in great numbers, attracted like the soldiers with the hope of booty, began to say prayers and sing litanies, while the fighting men were preparing their arms. This done, they confessed their sins, and received the sacrament. On the other side, the English diverted themselves with great noise, singing their old national songs around their watchfires, and drinking freely of wine and beer. In the morning, the Bishop of Bayeux, who was the duke's half-brother, celebrated mass in the Norman camp, and solemnly blessed the soldiers. He then mounted a large white horse, seized a baton of command, and drew up the cavalry in line of battle. William, mounnted on a Spanish charger-the most venerated of the relics, sworn on by Harold, suspended from his neck, and the standard consecrated by the pope borne by his side-thus addressed the troops when about to advance to the charge;

"Remember to fight well, and put all to death; for if we conquer, we shall all be rich. What I gain, you will gain. If I conquer, you will conquer. If I take this land, you shall have it. Know, however, that I am not come here only to obtain my right, but also to avenge our whole nation for the felonies, perjuries, and treacheries of these English. They put to death the Danes, men and women, on St. Brice's night. They decimated the companions of my kinsman, Alfred, and took his life. Come on, then, and let us, with God's blessing, chastise them for all these misdeeds." The priests then retired to a neighboring height to assist in the pious homicide with their prayers.

At first, the Normans were repeatedly driven back-a report went through the ranks that the duke was dead, and a panic seized the army, which began to retreat; but, with his accustomed presence of mind, he threw himself before them,

pulled off his helmet, assured them of his safety, and promised them victory. Then, by a skilful manœuvre, he threw the English off their guard, drew them from their strongholds, and won the day King Harold, and his two brothers, were found dead at the foot of the national standard, which was instantly plucked up, and the Roman banner planted in its stead. The remains of the small English army, without chief or standard, prolon ged the struggle till night, and fought on in the dark when the combatants could recognise one another only by their language, while the French shouts of victory resounded from hill to hill. Having thus done for their country all that valor could accomplish, the patriot soldiers dispersed. Many died on the roads, from their wounds and the fatigues of the day. The rest were pursued hotly by the Norman cavalry, who gave quar

ter to none.

Thus perished in one day the AngloSaxon sovereignty, and the rich realm of England became the possession of strangers. The Anglo-Saxon chroniclers refer to this fatal day in the most mournful strains: "England," exclaims one,' what shall I say of thee to our descendants? That thou hast lost thy national king, and hast fallen under the domination of foreigners--that thy sons have perished miserably--that thy councillors and chieftains are vanquished, slain, or disinherited!" Long after this, patriotic superstition discerned traces of fresh blood on the battle-ground; and, according to the religion of the times, William, who was pious in his way, made a vow that he would erect a monastery on this spot, to the Holy Trinity and St. Martin!

After dividing the spoils of the dead, the conquerors marched towards London, desolating the country as they advanced. In the meantime, Norman intrigues were busy in that city, taking advantage of the divisions which they fomented among the Saxon authorities. These intrigues were skilfully conducted by the prelates, some of whom advised submission to him who came with the banner of St. Peter, and the bull of the pope, yielding a blind obedience to ecclesiastical power, or actuated by political cowardice. Others, of foreign origin, gained over beforehand by the Norman pretender, were playing the part for which they had been paid in money or in promises. Alarmed for the

safety of the city, the 'banseward,' or mayor, recommended that terms should be made with the ravaging invader. They sent a deputation to the camp, whom William outwitted and blinded with gifts -promising everything, but pledging himself to nothing. A vain confidence in his justice and clemency speedily took the place of stupefying terror. The highest dignitaries in church and state, went forth and formally made their submission, taking the oaths of peace and allegiance. He assured them, upon his honor, that he would treat them mildly; yet, on his way to London, he allowed all that lay in his course to be devastated. At St. Alban's, he noticed some large trees across the road, evidently designed to obstruct his progress. He summoned the abbot, and sternly demanded why he allowed his timber to be thus cut down. "I have but done my duty," answered the Saxon monk," and if all my order had done the same, as they might, and ought to have done, perhaps thou wouldst not have penetrated so far into our country.'

On Christmas day, William the Conqueror was crowned in Westminster Abbey, by the Archbishop of York. As soon as London and the southern and eastern coasts were secured, the soldiers applied themselves to the dividing of the booty. Commissioners were sent through the whole extent of the garrisoned country. They made exact inventories of all the estates, public and private. registering them with great care and minuteness in a record which was expressively called 'Doomsday Book' by the Saxons. Of all who died in battle, of all who survived their defeat, and of all who intended to fight, but were prevented, the property of every kind was confiscated. The latter class, however, were permitted to hope, that by strict obedience to their new masters, not themselves, but their children might obtain some portion of their paternal inheritance. Such was the law of conquest.

By this confiscation, an immense amount of property was placed at the disposal of the new.comers. William, of course, kept to himself the lion's share. This embraced all the treasures of the ancient kings, and everything rare and precious that could be found in the shops. A part of these he sent to Pope Alexander, together with Harold's standard. All the churches abroad in which psalms had

been sung and tapers burned for the success of the invasion, received, in recompense, crosses, chalices, and stuffs of gold. After the king and the priests, the warriors came in for their portion, each according to his rank and engagement. The barons and knights got extensive domains, castles, townlands, and even entire towns. Some took their pay in money; others were married to noble Saxon ladies, heiresses to great possessions, whose husbands had been slain in battle. "One alone among all the warriors in the conqueror's train, claimed neither land, nor gold, nor women, and would accept no part of the spoils of the vanquished. His name was Guilbert. He said he had accompanied his lord, because it was his duty, but he would not take any of the fruits of the robbery."

Citadels and fortified castles soon covered the conquered territory. The disinherited natives were also disarmed, and compelled to swear allegiance to the new government by which they had been plundered. The lot of the men was servitude and poverty; that of the women, insults and violence. Such as were not taken par mariage,' were taken par amours' the sport of foreign masters, whose low origin was indicated by their names. But the meanest of them was master in the house of the vanquished. "Ignoble squires, impure vagabonds," say the old annalists, "disposed, at their pleasure, of young women of the best families, leaving them to weep and to wish for death. Those despised cable men, yielding to unbridled licentiousness, were themselves astonished at their villany. They became mad with pride at finding themselves so powerful. Whatever they had the will, they believed they had the right to do they shed blood in wantonness. They snatched the last morsel of bread from the mouths of the unfortunate; they seized everything--money, goods, and lands."

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The man who had crossed the sea with quilted cassock and the black wooden bow of the French soldier, now appeared, to the astonished eye of the new recruits who came after him, mounted on a war-horse and bearing the military baldrick. He who had arrived as a poor knight, soon lifted his banner, (as it was then expressed,) and commanded a company whose rallying cry was his own name. The herdmen of Normandy and

the weavers of Flanders, with a little courage and good fortune, soon became in England men of consequence-illustrious barons; and their names, ignoble and obscure on one side of the Straits, became noble and glorious on the other. The servants of the Norman man-at-arms became gentlemen' in England, whilst the once wealthy and titled Saxon was expelled from the home of his fathers, and had not where to lay his head. In this new nobility, after the royal style and title of William, was classed the dignity of the governor of a province, as a count or earl; next to him that of lieutenant, as vicecount or viscount; and then the rank of the warriors, whether as barons knights, esquires, or serjeantsat-arms, all deputed to be noble, whether by right of their victory or their foreign extraction.

William, according to his chaplain and biographer, carried with him into Normandy, more gold and silver than had ever before been seen in Gaul. The regular and secular clergy rivalled one another in their efforts to celebrate, by religious festivals, the return of the conqueror of the English; and, says the historian, neither monks nor priests went without their reward. He gave them gold in coins, ingots and chalices; and what was also highly acceptable, cloths embroidered with gold and silver to spread over the altars, which especially excited the admiration of travellers. It appears that in that age, embroidery in gold with the needle was an art in which the women of England excelled. The commerce of the island, also, already very extensive, brought to it many costly articles of merchandize, unknown to the north of Gaul. Among the special objects of admiration were the drinking vessels of the Saxons, made of large buffalo horns, and tipped with metal at the two extremities. The French wondered also at the beauty and long-flowing hair of the young English, who were captives or hostages in the hands of the Norman king.

Meantime the new lords of the Saxons, like all conquerors suddenly enriched, and placed in absolute authority over those whom they have most cruelly wronged --behaved themselves towards the subjugated people with unbounded license and insolence. The most brutal oppressor was lauded by his superiors, and those

who complained of injury were laughed to scorn. This led to insurrectionary movements and combinations, in which Celts and Saxons forgot their ancient animosity in love for their common country. After the surrender of Exeter, and the establishment of the Conquest in the West, these two races were involved in the same ruin, mingled together in the general mass of the enslaved population, destined to struggle on through ages of servitude and suffering, thence to rise slowly and laboriously to the predominant power and unrivalled glory which are now the portion of the English people.

Famine closely followed the footsteps of the Conquest. From the year 1067 it had been desolating those provinces which had up to that period been subdued; but in 1070 it extended itself to the whole of England, and appeared in all its horrors in the places last conquered. The inhabitants of the province of York, and the country to the north of it, after feeding on the flesh of dead horses, which the Normans had abandoned on the road, devoured human flesh. More than 100,000 people of all ages died of want in these countries. "It was a frightful spectacle," says an old annalist, "to see on the roads, in the public places, and at the doors of the houses, human bodies a prey to the worms; for there was no one left to throw a little earth over them." The famine, however, was confined to the natives. The foreign soldier lived in plenty. He had in the fortresses vast heaps of corn and other provisions, and supplies purchased for him abroad with English money. Moreover, this famine. was his friend; for it assisted him in thoroughly securing his prey. Often for the remnant of the meal of one of the meanest followers of the army, the Saxon, once illustrious among his countrymen, but now wasted and depressed by hunger, would come and sell himself and all his family to perpetual slavery. "Then was the shameful treaty inscribed on the blank pages of an old missal, where these monuments of the miseries of another age, in characters nearly ef faced by the worm of time, are to be traced even at this day, and supply fresh matter for the sagacity of antiquarians." Such was the holy work accomplished wherever the banner of St. Peter waved over this Catholic land! The pope and

the cardinals of that day were willing that England should be desolated from one end to the other, and become one vast scene of lust, rapine, agony, and despair, in order that the tax of Peter's pence should be established forever.British Review.

ASSASSINATION OF M. E. D'OSSERY IN SOUTH AMERICA.--The Minister of Foreign Affairs has received despatches from M. Lemoyne, the French Consul General and charge d'affairs at Lima, announcing the assassination of M. E. D'Ossery, who, in company with M. De Castlenau, was travelling in South America, exploring the hitherto unknown parts of that country. The object of the ex pedition was to cross the American continent from Rio Janeiro to Lima, thence returning to Guiana, traversing Peru, and descending the river of the Amazons. The travellers arrived at Lima in the summer of 1846.

After staying several months in that capital, they separated with the intention of reaching the Amazon by different routes; M. De Castlenau moving toward the Ucayale. and M. D'Ossery em barking on the Maranon. M. D'Ossery left Lima at the beginning of November, and by the end of the month was at Jaln, about 200 leagues south of Lima, where he hired a boat with four rowers at the port of Bella Vista, where he embarked on November 30, unattended by a servant. His friends at Lima warned him against this imprudence; but, in the rashness of youth, he disregarded their advice, and on the next day was murdered by the boatmen at a place called Jusa

maro.

The four assassins were arrested and sent to the Judge at Lambayequa, the chief town of the province. An armed party was immediately sent to Jusamaro, to bring in the body of M. D'Ossery and his effects to Lambayequa. No farther details have reached Paris, and, therefore, it is not known how the murder was committed, how it was discovered, or what induced the men to commit the barbarous act. All that is known is that M. D'Os ery took with him from Lima a considerable sum of money for the expenes of his journey.

The Peruvian Minister of Foreign Affairs hastened to send an account to M. Lemoyne of this fatal event.--Express.

The traveller who knows what a combination of interesting objects awaits him near the route from Albany to Waterford in this state, will be tempted to relinquish the luxury of a railroad, at least for a portion of the way to that fashionable summer retreat, Saratoga Springs. The Mohawk river, about mile above its union with the Hudson, presents a peculiarly wild and striking scene. After subserving the purposes of the canal, in various ways from Schenectady, sometimes by supplying artificial channels on one and the other bank, sometimes by allowing its own current to convey the numerous boats, which float along with their rich cargoes, and which, in two places, are carried across it in aqueducts, it is suddenly precipitated down a ledge of rocks seventy-two feet, and converted into a foaming and irresistible torrent. Below, the banks are mere walls of rock, rough, perpendicular and inaccessible, except in a few dangerous places, from the brow of which, the sight is impressive indeed, as we can testify, from personal observation.

It happens, most fortunately for the traveller of taste, that a bridge crosses the river below the falls, at such a point as to afford a full view of the cataract. The stage-drivers usually stop against one of the windows, to give the passengers an opportunity to enjoy the sight from the most favorable point. A dam

extends across the river a little below, by which the current is sufficiently checked to allow the boats of the Champlain canal to cross: the stream there forming a portion of that important work.

The descent of the Mohawk at the Cohoes Falls is overcome by the Erie canal by a double row of fine locks, which have been constructed at great expense on the southern bank of the river, and offer one of the most interesting sights along the whole route. In busy seasons, the activity and bustle here are very great.

By referring to the print, it will be seen that several large rocks appear to divide the falling sheet. In wet seasons the sheet is almost entire.

HUDSON RIVER RAILROAD.-Three parties of surveyors and engineers are now engaged in examining the route for this road preparatory to its permanent location, and putting the work under contract. One of these parties is engaged in the Highlands, having got as far up as Cold Spring. It is calculated to have the route thoroughly surveyed and located preparatory to putting under contract as far up as this place by the 1st of June next. When that is done the work between this and New York is to be put under contract, driven ahead and finished as soon as possible, and so soon as [Poughkeepsie Journal

Dec. 1818.