york00orns

YORK. 107
CHAPTER IX.
With Aldred's death another epoch in the history of
the Church of York commences. He was scarcely
laid in his grave before the threatened descent of the
Northmen took place. The two sons of Sweyn entered
the Humber with their fleet. York was stormed.
Three thousand Normans, who formed the garrison
were slain. "The minster with its treasures—its
muniments, and the glorious library which had been
the pride of Saxon England—all were surrendered to
the flames." The news of this terrible onslaught
soon reached William, It had been so ably planned
and so skilfully carried out that even his astuteness
had failed to foresee the probability of such a revolt
against his power. His wrath and indignation were
proportionately aggravated. He swore his grisly oath,
" by the splendour of God," that he would be
avenged, and with the sternest determination and the
most ruthless cruelty he carried out his purpose. He
inflicted a terrible retribution. If the inhabitants had
sympathised, as no doubt they did, with the Danish
king, and would fain have thrown off" the yoke which
William's conquest had laid upon the country, the
Norman king was relentless in his vengeance, and in
carrying it out in such a manner that resistance to
his power should be in all future time alike hopeless
and impracticable. The coast was ravaged, so that any