Perhaps no critic has thrown more light upon mediÆval history than Mr. Freeman, who in his discriminating analysis of the Norman character declares the supreme, the directive, the dominant quality to be craft: a special power of intellect which seems to have been created or evolved by the necessities of those times—intellect fused with instinct and directed by a conscienceless common sense. Mr. Freeman detected its manifestations in all the Norman's great affairs. In legal proceedings, in court intrigues, in ecclesiastical relations; in diplomatic affairs, in local or in provincial administration, and, most notable of all, in the conduct of war. It was in war-craft that the Saxon fell short. If success in battle had come with a sturdy frame, a stout heart, and a short sword, the Saxon would seldom have failed in war. But he was not strong (Mr. Freeman says) in "the wiles of war." From the very outset the Scandinavian has won battles by sheer weight of brain, and nature certainly "turned loose a thinker" when she projected a Scandinavian freebooter upon the soil of France.

This attribution of craft, and all that it implies, to the Norman, does not rest solely upon the deductions of a studious historian. The conception did not originate in the closet of a scholar; it seems to have come first from the "great common people"; from the field, from the market, the fireside, and the street. It is proverbial in the speech of France.

"C'est un Normand, c'est un fin Normand, c'est un Normand, adroit.

"RÉponse normande, rÉponse ambiguË. Que cela peut Être vrai est peut Être faux; la rÉponse est un peu normande."

These popular conceptions of the Norman character did not necessarily imply disparagement or reprobation. On the contrary, in that wild mediÆval struggle for existence, astuteness and duplicity were the winning cards. In the councils of the forest the popular favorite, Renard, was at the front. Even the imperious Isangrim was handicapped by lack of wit: a deprivation not unlike that of the clawless cat in Hades.

This sinister and sagacious quality of the Norman intellect seems to have had full play through all the varied experiences of the race; but its most enduring effects were visible in the great triune nationality evolved upon English soil. It quickened the sluggish wits of the Saxon; it tempered the rudeness and ferocity of the Dane, and became a shaping factor in the civilization of the world.

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