Haimer Viscount of Thouars

Haimer, Viscount of Thouars, a man, we are told, as ready of speech as he was valiant in fight, had, on the height of Telham, been the first to hail the Duke as a future King. He was not unwilling that the words which had then fallen from him as an omen should now put on full shape and substance. The Aquitanian chief began in a courtly strain, by praising the condescension of the general who

deigned to take the opinion of his soldiers on such a point. It was not, he said, a matter for much deliberation, when all were united in one wish. It was the desire of every man in William's army to see his lord become a King as soon as might be. To make William a King was the very end for which all of them had crossed the sea, the end for which they had exposed themselves to the dangers of the deep and of the battle. As for England itself, the wisest men in England, the highest in rank and character, were there, offering the kingship of their land to William. They doubtless knew best what was for the good of their own country. They clearly saw in William a fit man to reign over them, one under whose rule themselves and their country would flourish. An offer thus pressed on him from all sides it was clearly his duty to accept. William, we are told, weighed what was said, and determined at once to accept the Crown.