for their chief naval force the Venetian fleet under the Doge Domenico
Selvo. The Venetians are at this moment undoubted masters in all naval
warfare; the Normans are worsted easily the first day,--the second
day, fighting harder, they are defeated again, and so disastrously
that the Venetian Doge takes no precautions against them on the third
day, thinking them utterly disabled. Guiscard attacks him again on the
third day, with the mere wreck of his own ships, and defeats the tired
and amazed Italians finally!

The sea-fight between Alfred's ships and those of Hasting, ought to be
still more memorable to us. Alfred, as I noticed in last lecture, had
built war ships nearly twice as long as the Normans', swifter, and
steadier on the waves. Six Norman ships were ravaging the Isle of
Wight; Alfred sent nine of his own to take them. The King's fleet
found the Northmen's embayed, and three of them aground. The three
others _engaged Alfred's nine, twice their size_; two of the Viking
ships were taken, but the third escaped, with only five men! A nation
which verily took its pleasures in its Deeds.

But before I can illustrate farther either their deeds or their
religion, I must for an instant meet the objection which I suppose the
extreme probity of the nineteenth century must feel acutely against
these men,--that they all lived by thieving.

Without venturing to allude to the _raison d'être_ of the present
French and English Stock Exchanges, I will merely ask any of you here,
whether of Saxon or Norman blood, to define for himself what he means
by the "possession of India." I have no doubt that you all wish to
keep India in order, and in like manner I have assured you that Duke
William wished to keep England in order. If you will read the lecture