The river and the sea also swept away numbers, the king looking on in sorrow and dismay. From the height of Basteborc, he looked down and saw Varavile and Caborc; he beheld the marshes and the valleys, which lay long and broad before him, the wide stream, and the broken bridge; he gazed upon his numerous troops thus fallen into trouble; some he saw seized and bound, others struggling in the deep waters; and to those who were drowning he could bring no succour, neither could he rescue the prisoners. In sorrow and indignation he groaned and sighed, and could say nothing; all his limbs trembled, and his face burned with rage. Willingly, he cried, would he turn back, and endeavour to find a passage, if his barons would so counsel, but no one would give such advice. "Sire," said they, "you shall not go; you shall return another time and destroy all the land, taking captive all their richest men." Then the king went back into France, full of rage and heaviness of heart, and never after bore shield or lance; whether as a penance or not I know not. He never again entered Normandy: nor did he live long, but did as all men must do; from dust he came, to dust he returned. At his death he was greatly lamented, and his eldest son Philip[9] was crowned king in his stead. [Footnote 1: We have seen that after the battle of Mortemer, the king of France abandoned Jeffery Martel 'un quens d'Angou,' a deadly enemy to the duke. Wace narrates the feuds between them; and among the rest William's terrible revenge on those who, in defending Alençon, had annoyed him by allusions to his birth, crying out, 'La pel, la pel al parmentier!' These passages of the chronicle we pass over as not material to our present purpose.] [Footnote 2: Hyèmes or Exèmes, now in the arrondissement of Argentan.] [Footnote 3: The abbey of St. Pierre-sur-Dives was founded before 1040, by Lesceline, wife of William, count d'Eu.] [Footnote 4: In the arrondissement of Caen, near the Dives.] [Footnote 5: A small river passing near Bayeux to the sea at Bernières.] [Footnote 6: The Orne.] [Footnote 7: Huet cites this passage in his _Origines de Caen_. Quesnel (translated above _fence_) seems properly a wooden barricade, being derived from quesne, or chêne.] [Footnote 8: A little south of Varaville, along the Dives.] [Footnote 9: Philip I. was, at Henry's death, in 1060, an infant of seven years old. Baldwin, count of Flanders, William's father-in-law, was Philip's guardian; having married Henry's sister. Wace calls her Constance, instead of Adela; but Constance was in fact the name of her mother, king Robert's queen. See Chap. VII.] CHAPTER VII. HOW WILLIAM PROSPERED, AND HOW HE WENT TO ENGLAND TO VISIT KING EDWARD; AND WHO GODWIN WAS. [Illustration]