It was to Saint Aubert that the revelation came, when he was Bishop of Avranches, in the reign of Childeburt II. The Archangel appeared to him in his sleep, says the Breviary, and bade him build a church on the sentinel rock, round which already many pious hermits were gathered to serve God in solitude. Now Saint Aubert was a man who reflected much before taking any new step, and he hesitated so long that the Archangel had to repeat his visit three times before he was obeyed—a great encouragement, this, to timid souls!—but then the Saint went to work valiantly enough. The rock was of a strange rounded shape, and he built on its summit a great round church, as closely resembling the holy cave at Monte Gargano as possible. Then he sent to that place to fetch stones and relics from it, all of which he set with great honour in the newer sanctuary; and when all was done he established and endowed there a monastery of twelve “holy clerks for the perpetual service of the Blessed Archangel.” But Richard I, Duke of Normandy, wished still further to honour St. Michael, so he sent away the clerks and established the Benedictines in their place; and the fame of the Shrine and of the many miracles performed there drew a great concourse of pilgrims from all over the world, especially royal pilgrims from England and Europe generally, so that when the Order of the Knights of St. Michael was instituted, this was their Chapter House. By that time it was already one of the most ancient and one of the few “maiden” fortresses of the realm, and never, until the monarchy succumbed to the Revolution, did a single foe to France succeed in setting foot within its walls. For a thousand years, seven times a day, the praises of God had rung out from it over the sea; for a thousand years the standard of France floated stainless above its battlements. “_Monsieur Saint-Michel, Archange, premier Chevalier, qui pour la querelle de Dieu victorieusement batailla contre le dragon_” (it is thus that his titles are given in the Institutes of the Order founded in 1469), took care of his own—till France drove him away. INDEX A Acciajuoli, Lorenzo, 262 Acciajuoli, Nicholas, 246, 251-2, 261 _et sq._ Aglaë, 3 _et sq._ Agnes, Duchess of Durazzo, 204, 235 _et sq._ Aix, Archbishop of, 258 Alaric the Goth, 3, 10 Alban Hills, 142, 145 _et sq._ Alexander, Emperor of Russia, 294 Alexis, St., 6 _et sq._ Alphonsus Liguori, St., 241-2 Altamura, Giovanni Pipino, Count of, 205, 212-13, 230 Amadeus VIII of Savoy, 185, 187 Ancona, 289, 296, 302