Harold, Book 12. The Last Of The Saxon Kings

had brought with him, and which was to serve as a refuge in case of retreat. His ships he had run into deep water, and scuttled; so that the thought of return, w

the acting of some modern play, does the anxious manager more elaborately marshal each man, each look, each gesture, that are to form a picture on which the curtain shall fall amidst deafening plaudits than did the laborious captain appoint each man, and each movement, in his lure to a valiant foe:-The attack of the foot, their recoil, their affected panic, their broken exclamations of despair;-their retreat, first partial and reluctant, next se

thou to contend agains

stral strategy unimpro

!-and all the craft o

of the

acking, wheeling, flying, circling-that William's eye blazed, and his deep voice thundered the thrilling word; when Mallet

ancing furiously. Their object is

er a few brief but distinct orders to Odo, Fitzosborne, and some other of his leading chiefs, he headed a numero

But even the time, short as it was, that had sufficed to bring William in view of the enemy, had sufficed also, under the orders of his generals, to give to the wide plain of his encampment all

on hills, will vouchsafe us time to breathe! St. Michael gives his c

became evident that the English general perceived that here there was no Hardrada to surprise; that the news brought to his ear had ex

elmet of iron. How is this broken ground of hillock and valley named in our chart? It is strange that we should have ov

at the ground was called Senlac [256] or Sanglac

iar eno' hereafter; no jargon seemeth the sound to my ear-a sign

efore? it must have been between sleeping and waking.-Sanguelac, Sang

trologer foretold that thou woulds

ate will be! Battle shall we have, but not yet. Hark thee, Guillaume, thou hast been guest with this usurper; thou hast seemed to me to have some love for him-

s Norman thrice crossed

parle with Harold the brave Earl; but now, with the crown on his head, I hold

th new triumph over the greatest warrior Norway ever knew, they will fight on their own soil, and under a chief whom I have studied and read with more care than the Comments of Caesar, and in whom the

us to the memory of the star-seer, not to make some eff

. "Ride with me back to the camp, that I may gi

t his captains; I wish that they may know that the Church lays its Curse on those who fight against my consecrated banner. I do not ask thee, therefore, to demean thy knighthood, by seeking to cajole the usurper; no, but

hee, noble Count; and t

knight sh

recognising the military skill with which the Saxon had taken his post, and formed his precautions. He surrounded the main body of his troops with a perfect breastwork against the charge of the horse. Stakes and strong hurdles interwoven with osier plaits, and protected by deep dykes, served at

land rode his palfrey from line to line, and work to work, when, looking up, he saw Haco leading towards him up the slopes, a

heir chief for instructions. The King dismounted, and beckoning them to follow, strode towards the

s bodes; it is meet that with me, you, the defend

urn to Rouen,- needless his message, and short o

drew near and paused at some short dist

our outposts; they d

ng

e King will hear the N

"bid the

seen in the halls of Westminster, rising deathlike above the serge gar

n the hall, Claimant of all the realms of Anglia, Scotland, and the Walloon

mild in its majesty, but dark as midnight. "What says William the Count

rot. "First, again he offers thee all Northumbria, up to the realm of the

to give; and my people stand round me in arms

chiefs will submit to the arbitrement of our most holy Pontiff, Alexander the Second,

ed the march of Harold, deeming as one the cause of altar and throne), "this as Churchman, may I take leave to

n the rolls of the Vatican! Already, if rightly informed, the Pope hath been pleased to decide that our Saxon land is the Norman

oose, to bless and to curse: 'Harold, the Perjurer, thou art accursed! On thee and on all who lift hand in thy cause, rests the interdict of the Church. Thou art excommunicated from the family of Christ. On thy land, with its peers and its people, yea, to the beast in the field and the bird in th

were under the awful ban of excommunication, the thegns and abbots gazed on each other aghast. A v

ng not alone on his own head, presumed to blast the liberties of a nation, that he strode towards the speaker, and

ar eye serenely shining with virtuous

bad, false man offer, as if for peace, and as with the desire of justice, that the Pope should arbitrate between your King and the Norman? yet all the while the monk knew that the Pope had already predetermined

ror, and, with their plain English sense of justice, revolted at the perfidy which the

behind his comrade the knight, who as yet had said nothing, but, his face concealed by his helmet, stood motionless like a steel statue. And, in fact, these two ambassadors

owing back his helmet, so that the whole steel cap rested on the nape of the neck,

, (once thy guest, thy admirer, and friend,) thus saith William the Norman:-'Though sixty thousand warriors under the banner of the Apostle wait at his beck, (and from what I see of thy force, thou canst marshal to thy guilty side scarce a third of the number,) yet will Count William lay aside

his worst Norman maligner, in the after day of triumphant calumny, never so li

and a man shall decide th

the invader is in our land, the war is with a nation, not a king. And, by the very offer, this Norman Count (who cannot even speak our tongue)

freedom. I will not so violate the principle which in these realms knits king and people, as to arrogate to my single arm the right to dispose of the birthright of the living, and their races unborn; nor will I deprive the meanest soldier under my banner, of the joy and the g

closed over his face. "Look to it, recreant knight, perjured Chris

he Saints marshal the hosts o

, without obeisance or salut