'The gods are not able to defend themselves,' shouted the wise men. 'The gods of the English are false gods'; then rushing into the temple, they pulled the idol from its place and dragged it out of doors, while the people threw themselves upon the temple and pulled it to pieces. After that they tore up the hedge that surrounded the temple; and with the hedge and the ruins of the temple they made a bonfire whose flames rose high in the air and were seen far and wide, while in the middle of the fire the idol was burned to ashes. Then the people went home, and were baptized by Paulinus. CHAPTER III ENGLISH AND NORMAN In England there was an old King called Edward; a gentle pious man who disliked the trouble of governing, and who left his brother-in-law to rule the country while he himself spent his time in praying and in reading good books and going to church. Harold, Earl of Wessex, the king's brother-in-law, was one of the most able men then living; a true Englishman, wise and honourable. The people of England loved and trusted Harold; and as Edward had no children to succeed to the throne, they hoped that after his death Harold would become their king. On the other side of the strip of sea which divides England from France, there lived at this time a very proud and ambitious man, William, Duke of Normandy. William was descended from a great pirate who had come from the North, many years before, and had compelled the King of France to give him part of his dominions for himself and his followers to settle in. Ever since then, this part of France has been called Normandy; and the descendants of these Northmen are living there to this day. The pirate was made a duke; but his great grandson William of Normandy wanted to become a king. William's father had been a friend of King Edward of England, and when he was a young man William came from Normandy to spend some weeks at the Court of England. In after years William declared that during this visit Edward had promised that he, and not Harold, should be the next King of England. If Edward really made this promise he must have known that he was undertaking what he had no power to fulfil, for the English people had the right of choosing their own king, and they did not wish to have a proud Norman rule over them. But William had made up his mind to be a king; and he was a man who never let anything stand in the way of what he wanted. One day Earl Harold went sailing in the English Channel, when a storm arose and drove his vessel out of her course. Night came down, thick and foggy, and the captain did not know where they were. All remained on deck, keeping an anxious look-out; and in the darkness the vessel suddenly struck. Before them they could see some masses of rock; and the men had just time to scramble out before the little ship filled with water and sank.