"Traist horz entre sis mainz, d'une châsse ù el fu, La kemise à la Virge.
Reliques è corz sainz fist mult tost avant traire, Filatieres è testes et altres Saintuaires[30]: Ne lessia croix, ne châsse, ne galice[31] en aumaire.
Li Eveske meisme porta _por gonfanon_ Li plus chières reliques par la procession."
The effect of all this upon Rollo was most startling:--
"Quant Rou si grant gent vei, si s'en est esbahi De la procession ki de Chartres issi: Des relikes k'ils portent, è des cants k'il oï; De la Sainte Kemise ke la Dame vesti, Ki Mere è Virge fu---- N'i osa arester, verz sis nés[32] tost s'enfui; E, come pluséors distrent, la véue perdi. Mez tost la recovra et asez tost gari."-- _Rom. de Rou_, vol. i. p. 81.
William the Conqueror and his barons, wanting a wind to invade England, addressed themselves to the monks of S. Valery; and--
"----unt tant li covent préié Ke la châsse Saint Valeri Mistrent as chams sor un tapi. Al cors saint vinrent tuit orer Cil ki debveient mer passer: Tant i out tuit deniers offert, Tot li cors saint en ont covert. Emprez cel jor, asez briement, Orent bon oré[33] è bon vent."--_Rom. de Rou_, ii. 146.
But the most curious accumulation of these "saintuaires" was on the field of Hastings, where Duke William had a portable altar, enclosing divers relics of saints and martyrs, other relics being suspended round his neck; while before him was borne a sacred standard which had been blessed by the Pope, and on his finger was placed a ring, (also sent by "the apostle,") in which was set, according to some evidences, one of the hairs of St. Peter; according to others, one of his teeth[34]:--
"L'Apostoile (li otréia,) Un gonfanon li envéia; Un gonfanon et un anel Mult precios è riche è bel: Si come il dit, de soz la pierre Aveit un des cheveuls Saint Pierre."
Or, following another manuscript of the _Roman de Rou_,--
"----de soz la pierre Aveit une des denz Saint Pierre."
In these days, when the shock of armies was not accompanied by the thunder of cannon, when the silent flight of the arrow, the hum of the sling-stone, or the whirr of the javelin, were all that preceded the hand-to-hand conflict, no small account was made of the various war-cries of opposing chieftains. And not only war-cries, but even songs, were employed to encourage the assailants or intimidate the foe; of which the Song of Roland, sung by Taillefer on the field of Hastings, is an example in the memory of every reader. Snorro, in the Heimskringla, has preserved a fragment of the improvised verses sung by Harold Harfagar, as, mounted on his black charger, he passed along the line of his troops previous to the battle of Stanford-Bridge[35]. The pagan Northmen invoked their divinities,--a practice that was continued, according to the chronicle of Wace, to the middle of the eleventh century; for, of Raoul Tesson at the battle of Val-des-Dunes, he writes:--