of justice and government throughout the whole, and receive the value of the other half annually from my treasury in England. Thus you may enjoy pleasure and feasting to your heart’s content, while I will take upon me the labours of government, and guarantee the fulfilment of my pledge, if you will but keep quiet.” Foolish to the last, Robert declined the offer; and the two armies made themselves ready for battle.[38] In point of numbers they seem to have been not unequally matched, but they differed greatly in character. Robert was stronger in footsoldiers, Henry in knights; the flower of the Norman nobility was on his side now, besides his Angevin, Cenomannian and Breton allies;[39] while of those who followed Robert some, as the issue proved, were only half-hearted. Of Henry’s genuine English troops there is no account, but the men of his own day looked upon his whole host as English in contradistinction to Robert’s Normans, and the tactics adopted in the battle were thoroughly English. The king of England fought on foot with his whole army, and it seems that the duke of Normandy followed his example.[40] [32] Eng. Chron. a. 1104. Will. Malm. _Gesta Reg._, l. v. c. 397 (Hardy, p. 623). [33] Ord. Vit. (Duchesne, _Hist. Norm. Scriptt._), p. 814. [34] Chron. S. Albin. a. 1105 (Marchegay, _Eglises d’Anjou_, p. 30). [35] Ord. Vit. (Duchesne, _Hist. Norm. Scriptt._), p. 818. Chron. S. Albin. a. 1105 (Marchegay, _Eglises d’Anjou_, p. 30). [36] “Helias a Normannis rogatus discessit,” says Orderic (as above). What can this mean? [37] Eng. Chron. a. 1106. [38] Ord. Vit. (Duchesne, _Hist. Norm. Scriptt._), p. 820. [39] _Ib._ p. 820. Hen. Huntingdon, l. vii. c. 25 (Arnold, p. 235). [40] Hen. Hunt., l. vii. c. 25 (Arnold, p. 235). The first line of the Norman or ducal host under William of Mortain charged the English front under Ralf of Bayeux, and by the fury of their onset compelled them to fall back, though without breaking their ranks. The issue was still doubtful, when the only mounted division of Henry’s troops, the Bretons and Cenomannians under Count Elias, came up to the rescue, took the duke’s army in flank, and cut down two hundred men in a single charge. Those Cenomannian swords which William the Conqueror was so proud to have overcome now carried the day for his youngest son. Robert of Bellême, as soon as he saw how matters were going, fled with all his followers, and the duke’s army at once dissolved.[41] In Henry’s own words, “the Divine Mercy gave into my hands, without much slaughter on our side, the duke of Normandy, the count of Mortain, William Crispin, William Ferrers, Robert of Estouteville, some four hundred knights, ten thousand foot--and the duchy of Normandy.”[42] [41] Ord. Vit. (Duchesne, _Hist. Norm. Scriptt._), p. 821. Eng. Chron. a. 1106. Hen. Hunt., as above.