The following extract frown Mr. Thos. Dicey's _Hist. of Guernsey_ (edit.
Lond. 1751), pp. 8, 9, 10., may be worth adding to the foregoing notes on
this subject:
"One thing more relating to _Rollo_ Mr. Falle, in his account
of Jersey, introduces in the following manner, not only for the
singularity of it, but the particular concern which that island
has still in it, viz.--
"Whether it began through Rollo's own appointment, or took its
rise among the people from an awful reverence of him for his
justice, it matters not; but so it is, that a custom obtained
in his time, that in case of incroachment and invasion of
property, or of any other oppression and violence requiring
immediate remedy, the party aggrieved need do no more than
call upon the name of the Duke, though at never so great a
distance, thrice repeating aloud _Ha-Ro_, &c., and instantly
the aggressor was at his peril to forbear attempting anything
further.--_Aa!_ or _Ha!_ is the exclamation of a person
suffering; _Ro_ is the Duke's name abbreviated; so that _Ha-Ro_
is as much as to say, _O! Rollo, my Prince, succour me._
Accordingly (says Mr. Falle) with us, in Jersey, the cry is,
_Ha-Ro, à l'aide, mon Prince!_ And this is that famous _Clameur
de Haro_, subsisting in practice even when Rollo was no more,
so much praised and commented upon by all who have wrote on the
Norman laws. A notable example of its virtue and power was seen
about one hundred and seventy years after Rollo's death, at
William the Conqueror's funeral, when, in confidence thereof,
a private man and a subject dared to oppose the burying of his
body, in the following manner:
"It seems that, in order to build the great Abbey of St.
Stephen at Caen, where he intended to lie after his decease,
the Conqueror had caused several houses to be pulled down
for enlarging the area, and amongst them one whose owner had
received no satisfaction for his loss. The son of that person
(others say the person himself) observing the grave to be dug
on that very spot of ground which had been the site of his
father's house, went boldly into the assembly, and forbid them,
_not in the name of God_, as some have it, but _in the name of
Rollo_, to bury the body there.
"Paulus Æmylius, who relates the story, says that he addressed
himself to the company in these words:--'He who oppressed
kingdoms by his arms has been my oppressor also, and has kept
me under a continual fear of death. Since I have outlived him
who injured me, I mean not to acquit him now he is dead. The
ground whereon you are going to lay this man is mine; and I
affirm that none may in justice bury their dead in ground which
belongs to another. If, after he is gone, force and violence
are still used to detain my right from me, I APPEAL TO ROLLO,
the founder and father of our nation, who, though dead, lives
in his laws. I take refuge in those laws, owning no authority
above them.'
"This uncommonly brave speech, spoken in presence of the
deceased king's own son, Prince Henry, afterwards our King
Henry I., wrought its effect: the _Ha-Ro_ was respected,
the man had compensation made him for his wrongs, and, all
opposition ceasing, the dead king was laid in his grave."