now the headquarters of the Danish speech. At that stage the
Danish party was distinctly a heathen party. We are not told
whether Danish was still spoken so late as the time of William's
youth. We can hardly believe that the Scandinavian gods still kept
any avowed worshippers. But the geographical limits of the revolt
exactly fall in with the boundary which had once divided French and
Danish speech, Christian and heathen worship. There was a wide
difference in feeling on the two sides of the Dive. The older
Norman settlements, now thoroughly French in tongue and manners,
stuck faithfully to the Duke; the lands to the west rose against
him. Rouen and Evreux were firmly loyal to William; Saxon Bayeux
and Danish Coutances were the headquarters of his enemies.

When the geographical division took this shape, we are surprised at
the candidate for the duchy who was put forward by the rebels.
William was a Norman born and bred; his rival was in every sense a
Frenchman. This was William's cousin Guy of Burgundy, whose
connexion with the ducal house was only by the spindle-side. But
his descent was of uncontested legitimacy, which gave him an excuse
for claiming the duchy in opposition to the bastard grandson of the
tanner. By William he had been enriched with great possessions,
among which was the island fortress of Brionne in the Risle. The
real object of the revolt was the partition of the duchy. William
was to be dispossessed; Guy was to be duke in the lands east of
Dive; the great lords of Western Normandy were to be left
independent. To this end the lords of the Bessin and the Cotentin
revolted, their leader being Neal, Viscount of Saint-Sauveur in the
Cotentin. We are told that the mass of the people everywhere
wished well to their duke; in the common sovereign lay their only
chance of protection against their immediate lords. But the lords