When he was proclaimed King at the Altar, the English shouted, as was their custom, "God save the King!" The Normans within the Abbey heard and wondered. What could the shouts mean? Were the English rising against them? Full of fear and anger they rushed out to find everything in confusion, the houses ablaze, and their men, who had been left outside on guard, killing the poor English. In the Abbey William and the Bishops and monks were left almost alone; and thus, in the gloom and darkness of the winter's day, with the sound of tumult and fighting ringing in their ears, the Conqueror was {22} crowned. This was the first coronation in the Abbey; facing p. 9 is a picture of it. Two hundred years later King Henry III. pulled down Edward the Confessor's Abbey, and built in its place the Abbey we still have. In it the Confessor's tomb is behind the altar; for Henry had his body reverently moved from its first grave to a chapel which he had especially prepared for it. When you go to the Abbey you will see that this chapel is higher than any of the others; some people say the reason is that, to do more honour to the Confessor, King Henry sent ships to bring earth from the Holy Land, and this sacred earth was piled up into a mound behind the high Altar, and on it the Confessor's chapel was built. This is the part of the Abbey shown in picture 3; turn back and look at it again. Do you see that the old tomb is covered with purple velvet? Are not the pillars and arches about it beautiful? I have told you only the beginning of the Abbey's history. Not only are all our Kings crowned there but many of them lie buried there too; so also do some of the best and wisest men who have served our country, some of our bravest sailors, and of our greatest poets. Thus it comes about that the history of the Abbey is as long as the history of our country--indeed, it _is_ the history of our country. {23} III. THE STORY OF THE CHARTER HOUSE