Though William was thus continually filling his coffers with these dishonourable and sacrilegious spoils, yet was he avaricious without frugality, covetous and prodigal at the same time; always in want, and devising new ways to raise money, however mean and despicable. I cannot omit one artful and almost ludicrous method which Rufus practised to raise money, in the war with his brother Robert, who had engaged the French in his interest. "Under pretence (says M. Rapin, from Simeon Dunelmensis, Matthew Paris, &c.) that there was occasion for supplies of men, William Rufus [then in Normandy] sent orders into England, to raise, with all possible speed, 20,000 men. In raising this army, such were purposely taken for soldiers who were well to pass, or to whom it was very inconvenient to leave their families. When these levies were going to embark, the King's Treasurer told them, by his order, "that they might every man return home, upon payment of ten shillings each." This news was so acceptable to the soldiers, listed thus against their wills, that there was not one but who was glad to be dismissed at so easy a rate. By this means William raised the sum of 10,000_l._ with which he bribed the French to retire. Various other instances of extortion and rapacity (though not attended with so much ingenuity as this) might be adduced from the history of this Reign, recorded by contemporary writers; but enough has been mentioned to convince us that but little order or decorum is to be expected within the walls of the Court of so unprincipled a King. On the contrary, indeed, all writers agree[92] in their accounts of the dissolute manners of his Household and Adherents, which called forth rigid edicts in the next Reign, for the suppression of vices which had grown too flagrant to be removed by reprobation alone. The crimes laid to the charge of his retinue were, some of them, of the most serious nature, and required an uncommon exertion of severity; as we shall see presently. "In the magnificence of his _Court_ and buildings, however, (says Lord Lyttelton[93],) he _greatly_ exceeded any King of that age. But though his profuseness (continues his Lordship) arose from a noble and generous nature, it must be accounted rather a vice than a virtue; as, in order to supply the unbounded extent of it, he was very rapacious. If he had lived long, his expences would have undone him, and they had brought him some years before his death into such difficulties, that even if his temper had not been despotic, his _necessities_ would have rendered him a Tyrant. [92] "Ipse namque, et qui ei famulabantur (says Matthew Paris) omnia rapiebant, omnia conterebant, et subvertebant. Adulteria violenter, et _impunè_ committebant, quicquid fraudis et nequitiæ antea non erat, his temporibus pullulavit." Henry of Huntingdon uses nearly the same, but rather stronger, expressions. [93] Introduction to History of Henry II. HENRY I.