Harold, Book 12. The Last Of The Saxon Kings

s, the beasts of burden that had borne the heavy arms, missiles, luggage, and forage of the Saxon march, were placed in and about the fenced yards of a farm.

he last, prattling, curious, lively, gay. There, too, were the wives of some of the soldiers, who, as common in Saxon expeditions, had followed their husbands to the field; and there, too, were the ladies of many a Hlaford in the neighbouring district, who, no less true

r the low wall, and straining their eyes towards the bristling field. A little apart from the

es, and the shouts, rolled on through the air, in many a stormy peal,-the two abbots in the

und these new comers i

ide, gravely. "Pray God for England, for nev

ed and shuddered

ried, in a sudden and thrilling

andard; but I left him in the van of his troops. Where he

deemed, poor souls, that the holy men must, throughout all the field, have seen their lords;

ed their flocks; and the good abbots gave what comfort was in their power, a

r now

ds formed a rampart against the dart-spears a palisade against the horse. While that vanguard maintained its ground, William could not pierce to the entrenchments, the strength of which, however, he was enabled to perceive. He now changed his tactics, joined his knight

em all with voice and hand; and, as the Normans now closed in, he flung himself from his ste

lines of the English, with their physical strength and veteran practice in their own special arm, the Norman foot were mowed as by the scy

to warn, the men of Kent swerved not a foot from their indomitable ranks. The Norman infantry wavered and gave way; on, step by step, still un

oints against the horse. While behind them, the axe in both hands, bent forward the soldiery in the second rank, to smite and to crush. And, from the core of the wedge, poured the shafts of the archers. Down rolled in the dust half the charge of those knights. Bruse reeled on his saddle; the dread right hand of D'Aumale fell lopped by the axe; De Graville, hurled from his horse, rolled at the feet of Harold; and William, borne by his great steed and his colossal strength into the third rank-there dealt, right and left, the fierce strokes of his iron c

nd retreat!-no time on this field for captor and captive. He whom thou hast called recreant k

ed pity and reverence on the King; then rising, he turned away; and slowly

s; "yon man hath tasted our salt, and done us g

ft was di

ke (whom they recognised by his steed and equipment) fall on the ground, than, settin

led round, the host, would have been irrecoverable, had Harold possessed a cavalry fit to press the advantage gained, or had not William himself rushed into t

d, chiding, stimulating, threatening, promising in a breath, he succeeded in staying the flight, reforming the lines, and dispelling the general panic. Then, as he joined his own chosen knights, and surveyed the field, he beheld an opening which the adva

that you live yet to be an English earl. Look you, ride to Fitzosbor

ed, and darted

took from his squire another spear; "now, I shall give ye the day's great pastime.

ce of William's knighthood, scouring the plain to the

ll their leaders, and on no account to break the wedge, in the form of which lay their whole strength, both against the cavalry and the greater number of the foe. Then mounting his horse, and attended only by Haco, he spurred across the plain, in the opposi

ves, to welcome th

dead!" answered Harold. "Who, Hac

ee, and scarce out of bowshot from the entrenchments, a wo

the battle!" And he shouted aloud, "Farther

lready turned their faces towards the neighbouring ingress into the ramparts, and beheld not her movement, wh

the woman, "God be praised!" and she re-se

out of "the King-the King!-Holy Crosse!" came in time to rally the force

ft the entrenchments they had gained; steel and horse alike went down beneath the ponderous battle-axes; and William, again foiled and baffled, drew off his cavalry with the reluctant conviction that those breastworks, so manned, were not to be won by horse. Slowly the knights retreated down the slope of the h

that it is my fortunate day-the day on which, hitherto, all ha

d Haco in surprise. "A

of Duke William! What would astrologers

t of the ghastly relics;-again he saw the shadowy hand from the cloud-again heard the voice murmuring: "Lo, the star that shone on the birth of the victor;" again he heard the words of Hilda in

ev

ow shall For

ead men, u

ar-steeds o

whose rac

ival stars

dead men,

ar-steeds rou

old, despite even the warning cry of Leofwine, who, rash and gay-hearted though he was, had yet a captain's skill-the bold English, their blood heated by long contest and seeming victory, could not resist pursuit. They rushed forward impetuously, breaking the order of their hitherto indomitable phalanx, and the more eagerly because the Normans had unwittingly taken their way towards a part of the ground concealing dykes and ditches, into which the English trusted to precipitate the foe. It was as William's knights retreated from the breastworks that this fatal error w

havoc of the foreigners was so great, that the hollows are said to have been literally made level with the plain by their corpses. Yet this combat, however fierce, and however skill might seek to repair the former error, could not be long maintained against such disparity of numbers. And meanwhile, the whole of the division under Geoffroi Martel, and his co-captains, had by a fresh order

each section shaping itself wedge-like,-on came the English, with their shields over their head, through the tempest of missiles, against the rush of the steeds, here and there, through the plains, up the slopes, towards the entrenchment, in the teeth of the formidable array of Martel, and harassed behi

deed, were cut off, but Gurth, Leofwine, and Vebba hewed the way for their followers to the side of Harold, and ent

e thought that the small detachments of English still surviv

d foiled the charge of William himself. The Duke, in the recent melee, had received more than one wound, his third horse that day had been slain under him. The slaughter among the knights and nobles had been immense, for they had exposed their persons with the most desperate valour. And William, after surveying the rout of nearly one half of the English army, heard everywhere, to his wrath and his shame, murmurs of discontent and dismay at the prospect of scaling the heights, in which the gallant remnant had foun

e, fresh and unbreathed, free from the terrors of their comrades

Church! warriors of the Cross! avengers of the Saints! Desert your Count, if ye please; but shrink not back from a Lord mightier than man. Lo, I come fo

host, covering the field, till its lines seemed to blend with the grey horizon, came on serried, steadied, orderly-to all sides of the entrenchment. Aware of the inutility of his horse, till the

arold turned to Haco and sai

now to be thy shield-bearer, for thou must use thine axe with both hands while the d

son of Sweyn; I have

h thy life ceases mine: it is my heart that my sh

ed Harold; "but what were life if this day w

of the Norman blacken the air: with deadly precision, to each arm, each limb, each front exposed above the bulwarks whirrs the shaft. They clamber the palisades, the foremost fall dead under the Saxon axe; new thousands rush on: vain is the might of Harold, vain had been a Harold's might in every Saxon there! The first

rldom and land!"

h! Salvation and heave

d

ft, and shines in the rays of the westering sun, broidered with gold, and, blazing with mystic gems, the standard of England's King! And there, are gathered the reserve of the English host; there, the heroes who had never yet known defeat- unwearied they by the battle-vigorous, high-hearted still; and ro

d Haco, and Harold, the last leaning for rest upon his axe, for he was sorel

yet, and Saxon En

mparts were spent; so that the foe had time to pause and to breathe. The Norman arrows meanwhile flew fast and thick, but William

to call to him three of the chiefs of the arche

w fall perpendicular on those within-fall as the vengeance of the saints falls-direct from heaven! Give me thy bow, Archer,-thus." He d

our mark," said the Duk

down came the iron rain. It took the English host as by surprise, piercing hide cap, and

ny hearts boomed from t

man

nd their axes are useless-or while they smite with the axe they fall by the sha

ned and maintained by the small force of the survivors, defy other weapons than those of the bow. Every Norman who attempts to scale the breastw

ld, "hold but till nightfall, and

oly Crosse!"

ored especially by himself in the rehearsals of his favourite ruse, and accompanied by a band of archers; while at the same time, he himself, with his brother Odo, headed a considerable company of knights under the son of the great Roger de Beaumont, to gain the contiguous level heights on which now stretches the little town of "Battle;" there to watch and to aid the manoeuvre. The foot column advanced to the appointed spot, and after a short, close, and terrible conflict, succeeded in making a wide breach in the breastworks. But that temporary success only animates yet more the exertions

liam, and he gallops

I see the hands of the

d that wheel our war-s

eady in the breach, rallying around him heart

ir spears:- Haco holds over the breast the shield. Swinging aloft with both hands his axe, the spear of Grantmesnil is shiv

eld of Haco. The son of Sweyn is stricken to his knee. With lifted bl

d thy head," cries the fata

ng death-shaft. It smote the lifted face; it crushed into the dauntless eyeball. He reeled, he staggered, he fell back several yards, at the foo

onceal my death! Holy Crosse! E

ng to his feet, clenched his right

owards the standard bore back a line of Saxons, and

tly hues, amidst the foremost of those slain, fell the fated Haco. He fell with his hea

en, opposed himself singly to the knights; and the entire strength of the English remnant,

ot one Englishman fled; all now centering round the standard, they fell, slaughtering if slaughtered. Man by man, under the charmed banner, fell the lithsmen of Hilda. Then died the faithful Sexwolf. Then died the gallant Godrith, redee

ar shivered, helm drooped;-there, close by the standard, standing breast-high among the slain, one still more formidable, and even amidst ruin unvanquished. The first fell at length under the mace of Roger de Montgommeri. So, unknown to the Norman poet (who hath preserved in hi

lag," cried William, turning to one of his favo

d forth, to fall by the axe

sborne, "sorcery. This

rave," cried in a breat

ravi

is helmet,-he came to the foot of the standard, and for one moment there was single battle between the Knight-Duke and the Saxon hero. Nor, even then, conquered by th

t where now, all forlorn and shattered, amidst stagnant water, stands the altar-stone of Battle