Who can imagine the course of history with any one of these
removed--each an apparently inevitable step in the unfolding of a
mighty design, utterly incomprehensible at the time?




CHAPTER VI.

Someone has said that "the Lord must like common people, because he
made so many of them." The path for the common people in France at
this time led through heavy shadows. But a darker time was
approaching. A system of oppression was maturing which was soon to
envelop them in the obscurity of darkest night.

Those Scandinavian freebooters called Northmen, and later Normans, were
the scourge of the kingdom. Nothing was safe from their insolent
courage and rapacity.

The rich could intrench themselves in stone fortresses, with moats and
drawbridges, and be in comparative security, but the poor were utterly
defenceless against this perennial destroyer. The result was a compact
between the powerful and the weak, which was the beginning of the
feudal system. It was in effect an exchange of protection for service
and fealty.

You give us absolute control of your persons--your military service
when required, and a portion of your substance and the fruit of your
toil--and we will in exchange give you our fortified castles as a