any way, and which can only have been born in him, as an inheritance from his wiking forefathers. When scarcely more than a boy in years, Richard was already one of the most serious and determined of men. His sternness to those who “withstood his will” matched that of the Conqueror himself; and Richard’s will, even at the age of seventeen, was no mere caprice, but a fixed determination which overrode all obstacles between itself and its object as unhesitatingly as the old wiking-keels overrode the billows of the northern sea. He went down into Aquitaine fully resolved that the country should be at once, and once for all, reduced to submission and order. He set himself “to bring the shapeless into shape, to reduce the irregular to rule, to cast down the things that were mighty and level those that were rugged; to restore the dukedom of Aquitaine to its ancient boundaries and its ancient government.”[974] He did the work with all his might, but he did it with a straightforward ruthlessness untempered by southern craft or Angevin caution and tact. He would not conciliate; he could not wait. “He thought nothing done while anything still remained to do; and he cared for no success that was not reached by a path cut by his own sword and stained with his opponent’s blood. Boiling over with zeal for order and justice, he sought to quell the audacity of this ungovernable people and to secure the safety of the innocent amid these workers of mischief by at once proceeding against the evil-doers with the utmost rigour which his ducal authority could enable him to exercise upon them.”[975] In a word, before Richard had been six months in their midst, the Aquitanians discovered that if their Angevin duke had chastised them with whips, the son of their own duchess was minded to chastise them with scorpions. [969] See R. Coggeshall’s description of Richard’s love of church music: “clericos sonorâ voce modulantes donis et precibus ad cantandum festivius instimulabat, atque per chorum huc illucque deambulando, voce ac manu ut altius concreparent excitabat.” R. Coggeshall (Stevenson), p. 97. [970] Gir. Cambr. _De Instr. Princ._, dist. iii. c. 27 (Angl. Christ. Soc., p. 154). [971] _Ib._ c. 8 (p. 105). [972] Rog. Howden (Stubbs), vol. iv. p. 84. [973] That is, if the Blondel of tradition is to be identified with Blondel of Nesle. [974] Gir. Cambr. _De Instr. Princ._, dist. iii. c. 8 (Angl. Christ. Soc., p. 104). [975] _Ibid._ (p. 105).