When she found him inexorable, she suddenly threw off the mask and shewed on which side her real sympathies lay by parting from the king in anger and going home to her husband at Angers.[658] Father and daughter never met again. In the last week of November Henry fell sick while hunting in the Forest of Lions; feeling his end near, he sent for his old friend Archbishop Hugh of Rouen to receive his confession and give him the last sacraments. His son Earl Robert of Gloucester hurried to the spot at the first tidings of his illness; his daughter made no sign of a wish for reconciliation; yet when the earl and the primate asked for his final instructions concerning the succession to the crown, he remained true to his cherished purpose and once more bequeathed all his dominions on both sides of the sea to Matilda and her heirs for ever.[659] He died on the night of December 1, 1135.[660] [650] Rog. Howden (Stubbs), vol. i. p. 187. [651] Will. Malm. _Hist. Nov._, l. i. c. 8 (Hardy, p. 700). [652] Eng. Chron. a. 1135. [653] Chron. S. Albin. and Rob. Torigni, a. 1134. [654] Hen. Hunt., l. vii. c. 43 (Arnold, p. 253). [655] Ord. Vit. (Duchesne, _Hist. Norm. Scriptt._), p. 900. [656] This is the version of Orderic (as above); according to Rob. Torigni (a. 1135) the claim included a good deal more: “Erat et alia causa ipsius discordiæ major, quia rex nolebat facere fidelitatem filiæ suæ et marito ejus de omnibus firmitatibus Normanniæ et Angliæ.” [657] Ord. Vit. (Duchesne, _Hist. Norm. Scriptt._), p. 900. [658] Rob. Torigni, a. 1133. Will. Jumièges Contin., l. viii. c. 34 (Duchesne, _Hist. Norm. Scriptt._, p. 310). [659] So says Will. Malm. _Hist. Nov._, l. i. c. 8 (Hardy, p. 701). We shall see however that there were other versions of Henry’s final testamentary dispositions. [660] Will. Malm. _Hist. Nov._, l. i. c. 8 (Hardy, p. 700). Flor. Worc. Contin. a. 1135 (Thorpe, vol. ii. p. 95). Hen. Hunt., l. vii. c. 43 (Arnold, p. 254). Will. Jumièges Contin., l. viii. c. 33 (Duchesne, _Hist. Norm. Scriptt._, p. 309). Ord. Vit. (_ibid._), p. 901. With him expired the direct male line of the Conqueror; for Duke Robert’s long captivity had ended a year before.[661] Of the nine children of William the Conqueror and Matilda of Flanders, the youngest and the last survivor was now gone, leaving as his sole representatives his daughter the countess of Anjou and her infant boys. By a thrice-repeated oath the barons of Normandy and England stood pledged to acknowledge her as their sovereign. Suddenly there sprang forth an unexpected competitor. A rivalry which had seemed dead for nearly a hundred years revived in a new form; and the house of Anjou, on the very eve of its triumph, found itself once more face to face with the deadliest of its early foes--the house of Blois.