William the Conqueror. Abbott Jacob

conspirators now found that it was useless any longer to attempt to conceal their plans. In fact, they were already all exposed, and they knew that William would immediately summon his troops and come out to seize them. They must, therefore, either fly from the country or attempt an open rebellion. They decided on the latter—the result was a civil war. In the end, William was victorious. He took a large number of the rebels prisoners, and he adopted the following very singular plan for inflicting a suitable punishment upon them, and at the same time erecting a permanent monument of his victory. He laid out a public road across the country, on the line over which he had been conducted by the sons of Hubert, and compelled the rebels to make it. A great part of this country was low and marshy, and had been for this reason avoided by the public road, which took a circuitous course around it. The rebel prisoners were now, however, set at work to raise a terrace or embankment, on a line surveyed by William's engineers, which followed almost exactly the course of his retreat. The high road was then laid out upon this terrace, and it became immediately a public thoroughfare of great importance. It continued for several centuries one of the most frequented highways in the realm, and was known by the name of the Raised Road—Terre levée

      1

      See the map at the commencement of this chapter.

      2

      Her name is spelled variously, Arlette, Arlotte, Harlotte, and in other ways.

      3

      

1

See the map at the commencement of this chapter.

2

Her name is spelled variously, Arlette, Arlotte, Harlotte, and in other ways.

3

Seizin, an ancient feudal term denoting the inducting of a party to a legal possession of his right.

4

See map at the commencement of chapter ix.

5

See map, chapter ix.

6

See map, chapter ix.