Note 546 — Chapter VIII · THE EARLY YEARS OF WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.[497] A.D. 1028–1051.

Ib. 12. The tale is that he one day went out with his followers (clientes) to rob, and seized on the pig of a certain nun (“inter reliqua porcum cujusdam sanctimonialis rapuit”). The holy woman pleaded earnestly for the restoration of her favourite (“gemens eum insecuta est, ac, ut porcellus quem nutrierat, sibi pro Deo redderetur, obnixè deprecata est”), but all was in vain; the oppressor killed the pig and ate him for supper. The same night he was strangled in his bed. In those times no alternative was thought of except a supernatural intervention, and an assassination by Arnulf’s brother Oliver. But our historian altogether rejects this last view, as inconsistent with the high character of Oliver, who passed many years as a brave and honourable knight, and at last died in the odour of sanctity as a monk of Bec.

This story contains nothing absolutely incredible; yet one is tempted to see in it a slightly ludicrous version of Nathan’s parable, assuming a form impossible under the elder dispensation. Arnulf too does not seem to have had even the poor excuse of the presence of a wayfaring man.