19. The rustics, on these forfeited estates, would fight for their lord to the last; but, when he was forced to yield, they had no choice but to submit to the new lord, or to see their cottages set on fire, and their wives and children perhaps murdered before their eyes. 20. Some of the English nobles hid in the forests with their families, and as many of their vassals as would go with them, where they made habitations, and supported themselves by robbery and hunting; and this was the origin of the numerous bands of robbers that, in after times, were the terror of the country. 21. The famous Robin Hood, who lived in the reign of Richard the First, is supposed to have been a descendant of one of these unfortunate English nobles. 22. The Bishops’ sees and abbey lands were seized in the same violent manner, as the estates of the nobles, and given to the Norman clergy; and many of the monasteries, after being broken open and plundered, were taken for the abode of monks who came over from Normandy in great numbers. 23. The Normans built a great many castles in different parts of the country; and, if they wanted to build one on a spot where there happened to be houses, they thought nothing of turning out the inhabitants, and pulling down the houses, to make room: and they pressed the poor people, both men and women, to do all the labour, without pay, and treated them very cruelly besides; for, if they did not work hard enough, these unfeeling taskmasters would urge them on with blows. 24. Then wherever the Norman soldiers stayed, they went and lived in the houses of the people, took what they pleased, and made the family wait upon them. 25. The king, himself, cruelly laid waste different parts of the country in revenge for the opposition made to his progress by some of the English earls, especially in the north, where, about three years after the battle of Hastings, such a scene of desolation was made by fire and sword, that, from York to Durham, the houses, the people, and all signs of cultivation, were utterly destroyed. 26. The last stand made against the Normans was in a little island, formed by bogs and lakes, in Cambridgeshire, and still called the Isle of Ely. There, a brave chief, named Hereward, set up a fortified camp, and was joined by other noblemen, and many of their dependents, who, with the ceorls, or tenants, belonging to the Abbey of Ely, made quite an army. 27. It was a secure place of refuge, because the only safe paths into the island were unknown to the Normans, who would most likely have been lost in the bogs, if they had ventured to approach.