When the administration was over, Richard was led forward to the step
of the Altar by Count Bernard, and Sir Eric, and the Archbishop,
laying one hand upon both his, as he held them clasped together,
demanded of him, in the name of God, and of the people of Normandy,
whether he would be their good and true ruler, guard them from their
foes, maintain truth, punish iniquity, and protect the Church.

"I will!" answered Richard's young, trembling voice, "So help me
God!" and he knelt, and kissed the book of the Holy Gospels, which
the Archbishop offered him.

It was a great and awful oath, and he dreaded to think that he had
taken it. He still knelt, put both hands over his face, and
whispered, "O God, my Father, help me to keep it."

The Archbishop waited till he rose, and then, turning him with his
face to the people, said, "Richard, by the grace of God, I invest
thee with the ducal mantle of Normandy!"

Two of the Bishops then hung round his shoulders a crimson velvet
mantle, furred with ermine, which, made as it was for a grown man,
hung heavily on the poor child's shoulders, and lay in heaps on the
ground. The Archbishop then set the golden coronet on his long,
flowing hair, where it hung so loosely on the little head, that Sir
Eric was obliged to put his hand to it to hold it safe; and, lastly,
the long, straight, two-handed sword was brought and placed in his
hand, with another solemn bidding to use it ever in maintaining the
right. It should have been girded to his side, but the great sword
was so much taller than the little Duke, that, as it stood upright by