This campaign is truly Norman; it is wholly unlike the simple
warfare of England. A traitorous Englishman did nothing or helped
the enemy; a patriotic Englishman gave battle to the enemy the
first time he had a chance. But no English commander of the
eleventh century was likely to lay so subtle a plan as this, and,
if he had laid such a plan, he would hardly have found an English
army able to carry it out. Harold, who refused to lay waste a rood
of English ground, would hardly have looked quietly on while many
roods of English ground were wasted by the enemy. With all the
valour of the Normans, what before all things distinguished them
from other nations was their craft. William could indeed fight a
pitched battle when a pitched battle served his purpose; but he
could control himself, he could control his followers, even to the
point of enduring to look quietly on the havoc of their own land
till the right moment. He who could do this was indeed practising
for his calling as Conqueror. And if the details of the story,
details specially characteristic, are to be believed, William
showed something also of that grim pleasantry which was another
marked feature in the Norman character. The startling message
which struck the French army with panic was deliberately sent with
that end. The messenger sent climbs a tree or a rock, and, with a
voice as from another world, bids the French awake; they are
sleeping too long; let them go and bury their friends who are lying
dead at Mortemer. These touches bring home to us the character of
the man and the people with whom our forefathers had presently to
deal. William was the greatest of his race, but he was essentially
of his race; he was Norman to the backbone.

Of the French army one division had been surprised and cut to
pieces, the other had left Normandy without striking a blow. The