Amid dins, battles, and death;
Woe! to him that beholds what is not death.
The Author Robert Duke of Normandy.[67]
Whether these lines be actually by Robert Curthose or not, they are in their tragic pathos no inapt epitome of his misdirected career, which had begun with such bright promise and ended in such signal disaster. ‘Woe to him that is in the power of his enemies,’ ‘woe to him that is not old enough to die’—often must these sentiments have haunted him during the long years of his captivity. But his melancholy longings at last found satisfaction. Early in February 1134 he died at Cardiff,[68] a venerable octogenarian, and was buried before the high altar in the abbey church of St. Peter at Gloucester.[69] Henry I piously made a donation to the abbey, in order that a light might be kept burning perpetually before the great altar for the good of the soul of the brother whom he had so deeply injured.[70]
FOOTNOTES
[1] Eadmer, p. 184. The letter was written from Elbeuf-sur-Andelle near Rouen, according to H. W. C. Davis before 15 October. E. H. R., xxiv, p. 729, n. 4.
[2] Ordericus, iv, pp. 231-232.
[3] “Rex siquidem cum duce Rotomagum adiit, et a civibus favorabiliter exceptus, paternas leges renovavit, pristinasque urbis dignitates restituit.” Ibid., p. 233.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Ibid., p. 273.