unity of England. We therefore cannot seriously regret his
successes. But none the less honour is due to the men whom the
duty of the moment bade to withstand him. They could not see
things as we see them by the light of eight hundred years.

The movement evidently stirred several shires; but it is only of
Exeter that we hear any details. William never used force till he
had tried negotiation. He sent messengers demanding that the
citizens should take oaths to him and receive him within their
walls. The choice lay now between unconditional submission and
valiant resistance. But the chief men of the city chose a middle
course which could gain nothing. They answered as an Italian city
might have answered a Swabian Emperor. They would not receive the
King within their walls; they would take no oaths to him; but they
would pay him the tribute which they had paid to earlier kings.
That is, they would not have him as king, but only as overlord over
a commonwealth otherwise independent. William's answer was short;
"It is not my custom to take subjects on those conditions." He set
out on his march; his policy was to overcome the rebellious English
by the arms of the loyal English. He called out the fyrd, the
militia, of all or some of the shires under his obedience. They
answered his call; to disobey it would have needed greater courage
than to wield the axe on Senlac. This use of English troops became
William's custom in all his later wars, in England and on the
mainland; but of course he did not trust to English troops only.
The plan of the campaign was that which had won Le Mans and London.
The towns of Dorset were frightfully harried on the march to the
capital of the West. Disunion at once broke out; the leading men
in Exeter sent to offer unconditional submission and to give
hostages. But the commonalty disowned the agreement;