finished his work in the north, he turned toward the ancient Roman
city of Chester, in the west, and captured it. (See map facing
p. 38.)

110. Hereward (1091).

Every part of the land was now in William's power except an island in
the swamps of Ely, in the east of England. There the Englishman
Hereward, with his resolute little band of fellow countrymen,
continued to defy the power of the Conqueror. (See map facing p. 38.)
"Had there been three more men like him in the island," said one of
William's own soldiers, "the Normans would never have entered it."
But as there were not three more, the Conquest was at length
completed.

111. Necessity of William's Severity.

The work of death had been fearful. But it was better that England
should suffer from these pitiless measures than that it should sink
into anarchy, or into subjection to hordes of Northmen (S53). For
those fierce barbarians destroyed not because they desired to build
something better, but because they hated civilization and all its
works.

Whatever William's faults may have been, his great object was to build
up a government better than any England had yet seen. Hence his
severity, hence his castles and forts, by which he made sure of
retaining his hold upon whatever he had gained.

112. William builds the Tower of London.