640-644, and William Rufus, vol.ii, p.118.For the Bayeau tapestry, see Bruce, Bayeux Tapestry Elucidated, plate vii and p.

86; also Guillemin, World of Comets, p.24.There is a large photographic copy, in the South Kensington Museum at London, of the original, wrought, as is generally believed, by the wife of William the Conqueror and her ladies, and is still preserved in the town museum at Bayeux.
Nearly every decade of years throughout the Middle Ages saw Europe plunged into alarm by appearances of this sort, but the culmination seems to have been reached in 1456.

At that time the Turks, after a long effort, had made good their footing in Europe.

A large statesmanship or generalship might have kept them out; but, while different religious factions were disputing over petty shades of dogma, they had advanced, had taken Constantinople, and were evidently securing their foothold.
Now came the full bloom of this superstition.

A comet appeared.