(_For the Mirror_.)
_Clamour de haro_ is a cry or formula of invoking the assistance of
justice against the violence of some offender, who, upon hearing of
the word _haro_, is obliged to desist, on pain of being severely
punished for his outrage, and to go with the party before the judge. The
word is commonly derived of _ha_ and _roul_, as being supposed
an invocation of the sovereign power, to assist the weak against the
strong, on occasion of Raoul, first duke of Normandy, about the year
912, who rendered himself venerable to his subjects, by the severity
of his justice; so that they called on him, even after his death, when
they suffered any oppression. Some derive it from _Harola_, king of
Denmark, who, in the year 826, was made grand conservator of justice at
Mentz. Others from the Danish _a a rau_, help me, a cry raised by
the Normans in flying from a king of Denmark, named Roux, who made
himself duke of Normandy. The _haro_ had anciently such vast power,
that a poor man of the city of Caen, named Asselin, in virtue thereof,
arrested the corpse of William the Conqueror, in the middle of the
funeral procession, till such time as his son Henry had paid the value
of the land in question, which was that whereon the chapel was built
wherein he was interred.