Plague of flies.
They agree to surrender. the men of the land. But all chance of plunder was now cut off; a crowd of men and horses were packed closely together within the circuit of the fortress, with little heed to health or cleanliness. Sickness was rife among them, and a plague of flies, a plague which is likened to the ancient plague of Egypt, added to their distress.[1] There was no hope within their own defences, and beyond them a host lay spread which there was no chance of overcoming. At last the heart of Odo himself failed him. He and his fiercest comrades, Eustace of Boulogne, even Robert of Bellême, at last brought themselves to crave for peace at the hands of the offended and victorious King.
Lesson of the war: the King stronger than any one noble.
Odo and Roger of Montgomery.
It was a great and a hard lesson which Odo and
his accomplices learned at Pevensey and Rochester.
It was the great lesson of English history, the great
result of the teaching of William the Great on the day
of Salisbury, that no one noble, however great his power,
however strong the force which he could gather round
him, could strive with any hope of success against
the King of the whole land. In the royal army itself
Odo might see one who had risen as high as himself
among the conquerors of England, the father of the
fiercest of the warriors who stood beside him, following
indeed the King's bidding, but following it against his
will. Roger of Montgomery was in the host before
Rochester, an unwilling partner in a siege which was
waged against his own sons. Both he and other Normans
in the King's army are charged with giving more of real
help to the besieged than they gave to the King whom
- ↑ Ord. Vit. 667 C. "In oppido Rofensi plaga similis Ægyptiorum plagæ apparuit, qua Deus, qui semper res humanas curat et juste disponit, antiqua miracula nostris etiam temporibus recentia ostendit." Nobody could eat, unless his neighbour drove away the flies; so they wielded the flapper by turns.
