Let us look, too, at the events of his reign. Crime after crime crowds upon us. His first act was to imprison those whom his father had set free. He loaded the Forest Laws with fresh horrors. Impartial in his cruelty, he plundered both castle and monastery (_The Chronicle_. Ed. Thorpe, vol. i. p. 364). He burnt out the eyes of the inhabitants of Canterbury, who had taken the part of the monks of St Augustin’s. At the very mention of his approach the people fled (Eadmer: _Hist. Nov._, lib. iv. p. 94). Unable himself to be everywhere, his favourites, Robert d’Ouilly harried the middle, and Odineau d’Omfreville the north of England; whilst his Minister, Ralph Flambard, committed such excesses that the people prayed for death as their only deliverance (_Annal. Eccles. Winton._, in Wharton’s _Anglia Sacra_, tom. i. p. 295). As _The Chronicle_ impressively says, “In his days all right fell, and all wrong in the sight of God and of the world rose.” Norman and English, friend and foe, priest and layman, were united by one common bond of hatred against the tyrant. It could only be expected that as his life was, so his death would be; that he would be betrayed by his companions, and in his utmost need deserted by his friends. [128]Eadmer: _Vita Anselmi_, Ed. Paris, 1721, p. 23. John of Salisbury: _Vita Anselmi_, cap. xi.; in Wharton’s _Anglia Sacra_, tom. ii. p. 169. William of Malmesbury: Ed. Hardy, vol. ii., b. iv., sect. 332, p. 507; and Roger of Wendover, Ed. Coxe, vol. ii. pp. 159, 160. [129]Vitalis: _Historia Ecclesiastica_, pars 3, lib. x.; in Migne, _Patrologiæ Cursus Completus_, tom. clxxxviii., pp. 750 D, 751 A. See previously, p. 94, foot-note. [130]Eadmer: _Vita Anselmi_, Ed. Paris, 1721, p. 6.