diminish its credibility; and Jumieges, then desolate, could scarcely
contain a community capable of accepting the donation. But under the
reign of the son and successor of Rollo, the abbey of Jumieges once more
rose from its ashes. Baldwin and Gundwin, two of the monks who had fled
to Haspres, returned to explore the ruins of the abbey: they determined
to seclude themselves amidst its fire-scathed walls, and to devote their
lives to piety and toil.--In pursuing the deer, the Duke chanced to
wander to Jumieges, and he there beheld the monks employed in clearing
the ground. He listened with patience to their narration; but when they
invited him to partake of their humble fare, barley-bread and water, he
turned from them with disdain. It chanced, however, that immediately
afterwards, he encountered in the forest a boar of enormous size. The
beast unhorsed him, and he was in danger of death. The peril he regarded
as a judgment from heaven; and, as an expiation for his folly, he
rebuilt the monastery. So thoroughly, however, had the Normans
_demonachised_ Neustria, that William Longa Spatha was compelled to
people the abbey with a colony from Poitou; and thence came twelve
monks, headed by Abbot Martin, whom the duke installed in his office in
the year 930. William himself also desired to take refuge from the
fatigues of government in the retirement of the monastery; and though
dissuaded by Abbot Martin, who reminded him that Richard, his infant,
son still needed his care, he did not renounce his intention:--but his
life and his reign were soon ended by treachery.

This second æra of the prosperity of Jumieges was extremely short; for
the prefect, whom Louis d'Outremer, King of France, placed in command at
Rouen, when he seized upon the young Duke Richard, pulled down the
walls of this and of all the other monasteries on the banks of the
Seine, to assist towards the reparation and embellishment of the seat of
his government. But from that time forward the tide of monastic affairs