This royal couple did everything to render their subjects happy and contented, and provided work for them by building ships and harbors, which promoted trade also. Though we know that Matilda did not love her husband before marriage, she became a devoted wife afterwards, and William showed his entire confidence in her by leaving her to govern his country when he went over to England to obtain a promise from Edward the Confessor that he would adopt him as successor to the throne. He was kindly received in England, and Edward gave him some fine hawks, hounds and other presents. Then Matilda had a little boy whose birth added considerably to her happiness. He was called Robert, after his grandpapa, and there was great rejoicing in Normandy over this event. If they could have foreseen how he would turn out, the feeling would have been very different. {023}In course of time Matilda had eight other children, and during many years of peace and national prosperity, she and her husband devoted themselves to their care and education. [[A.D. 1065.]] Now it happened that once, when Harold, Edward the Confessor's half brother, was out fishing in an open boat, he was overtaken by a storm and obliged to seek refuge in the territory of the Earl of Ponthieu, who seized him and shut him up in prison. William rescued him, treated him most kindly, and even promised him one of his daughters in marriage, though she was but seven years old. [Illustration: 8027] Harold acted like a sneak, and pretended to be highly flattered; but it was not his intention ever to marry the girl at all. He listened to William's narration of how Edward had adopted him as his successor to the British throne, and made a solemn promise to assist him to get it. Soon after his return to England, he married the widow of the Prince of Wales, and at Edward's death he took no notice of his promise to William, but had himself proclaimed king. Of course such conduct aroused William's wrath, and, with the aid of his wife's relations, he resolved to invade England. [[A.D. 1066.]] This was the year 1066, and a memorable {024}one on account of the appearance in the heavens of a splendid three-tailed comet. We are pleased to have such a visitor and to be able to gaze at it and study it with the aid of telescopes, but in that time the people were so superstitious that they thought it portended evil, and so it spread terror throughout the land. The death of the King, which occurred only a few days after its appearance, served to encourage the superstition. When the astrologers foretold its approach they announced it thus: "In the year one thousand and sixty-six, Comets to England's sons an end shall fix."