StNicholas [serial] . et this act of kindness toward his fugitivesovereign. Many years afterward, when kingof England, William showed that he remem-bered this timely help by heaping wealth andhonors on those four boys who rode with himinto Falaise on the day of the disastrous shoot-ing-match of Valognes. But the men who had intended to kill theyoung duke did not rest quiet when theyfound their intended victim had slipped throughtheir fingers. They collected a great army, and igoo.] THE BOYHOOD OF THE CONQUEROR. 44I attempted to destroy him in open battle. Wil-liam met them on the bleak plains
StNicholas [serial] . et this act of kindness toward his fugitivesovereign. Many years afterward, when kingof England, William showed that he remem-bered this timely help by heaping wealth andhonors on those four boys who rode with himinto Falaise on the day of the disastrous shoot-ing-match of Valognes. But the men who had intended to kill theyoung duke did not rest quiet when theyfound their intended victim had slipped throughtheir fingers. They collected a great army, and igoo.] THE BOYHOOD OF THE CONQUEROR. 44I attempted to destroy him in open battle. Wil-liam met them on the bleak plains east of Caen,and soon showed them he was a valiant soldieras well as a swift-footed fugitive. The battle named Val-es-Dunes, which wasfought on August 10, 1047, is the turning-point ous profession for the good bishop, but atHastings he laid about him with a heavy club,killing every one he struck! He had refusedto wield a sword, because he was a churchmanand a man of peace. William resented furiously any allusion to or. of young Williams life. He came out of thefight not only as a victorious general, but asa knight of prowess. No man could hence-forward afford to despise the youthful Duke ofNormandy. The fight was a bloody one, andthe flying rebels were ruthlessly destroyed. Somany were drowned in trying to cross the riverthat the mills of Bourbillion were stopped bythe dead bodies, and a century later, in Caen,there still lingered a tradition that the riverOrne, which flows from the east, was tingedred on that awful summers day. Though the barons were defeated at Val-es-Dunes, they were not entirely quelled, neverthe-less. They rebelled again and again. Therewas a William at Arques who stood a longsiege and was subdued only by hunger, and one,Guy of Brionne, held out for three years. Boththese men were powerful nobles, and relativesof William, but he conquered both. It is curi-ous to see how stern and unrelenting Williamalways showed himself toward his kindred onhis fathers sid
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