Harold, Book 10. The Last Of The Saxon Kings

eemed his vow irrefragable, he would have died the Roman's death, rather than live the traitor's life; and strange indeed was the revolution created in this man's character, that he,

and rankling remorse at the memory of the vow, he yet felt exonerated, not from the guilt of having made, but the deadlier guilt of fulfilling it-all the objects of existence resumed their natural interest, softened and chastened, but still vivid in the heart restored to humanity. But from that time, Harold's stern philosophy and stoic ethics were shaken to the dust; re-

w, could pass a pilgrim to the Holy Sepulchre, and there, as the creed of the age taught, win full

s the conscience, as sudden night wraps the traveller in the desert-when error entangles his feet in its inextricable web-when, still desirous of the right, he sees before him but a choice of evil; and the Angel of the Past, with a flaming sword, closes on him the gates of the Future. Then, Faith flashes on him, with a light from the cloud. Then, he clings to Prayer as a drowning wretch to the plank. Then, that solemn authority which clothes the Priest, as t

ing and humbled, into the fold of the Church; what peopled Egypt with eremites; what lined the roads of Europe and Asia with pilgrim homicides; what, in the elder world, while Jove yet reigned on Olympus, is couched in the dim traditions of the expiation of Apollo, the joy-god, descending into Hades; or why the

, and his chamber soon swarmed with joyous welcomes and anxious friends. But the first congratulations over, each had tidin

d upon York; Tostig had fled in dismay, none as yet knew whither. The sons of Algar had sallied forth from their Mercian fortre

ings of evil portent that had escaped from his lip in his mystic reveries and visions, had spread abroad, bandie

t Earl-Harold the stout, and the wise, and

e dews from his mane. His intellect, that seemed to have burned dim and through smoke in scenes unfamiliar to its exercise, rose at once equal to the occasion. His words reassu

that once that night, wandering through the silent glades, and musing on heaven, the loud song of the nightingales had disturbed his devotions; with vexed and impatient soul, he had prayed that the music might be stilled: and since then, never more the nightingale was

ted by carved symbols of the bell towers of Jerusalem: and his languid face brightened at the sight of Harold. Behind the King s

m which the earthly sceptre is about to fall. Hush! for it is so, and I rejoice." Then examining Harold's features, yet pale with recent emotions, and now saddened by sympathy with the King, he resume

ad the snares laid for me and our native land, under pretext of a promise made by t

s like house and hyde by a man's single testament, might well escape from my thoughts, never too bent upon earthly affairs. But I marvel not that my co

rold of much disquietude, for he rightly conjectured, that on waking from it Edward would press him no more as to

rn from the world of vision, he stretched fort

ou mayest have heard that once an aged pilgrim stopped me on my way from God's House, and asked for alms-and I, having noug

the Earl; "for the pilgrim bruited it abroad

token, that on Twelfth-Day Eve he shall be with me. For what he gave to me, will I prepare recompense without bound; and already the saints deck for the new comer the halls where the worm never gnaws and the moth never frets.' 'And who,' asked my subjects amazed, 'who shall we say, speaketh thus to us?' And the pilgrim answered, 'He on whose breast lea

h he was well aware), might induce his timorous conscience to take steps for the completion of the old promise,-Harold, we say, thus su

ral. All the land is in rebellion. Anlaf, whom thy coming dismissed, hath just wearied me with sad tales of bloodshed and ravage. Go and hear him;-go hear the bodes of thy brother Tostig, who wait without in

y he had been with Edward's sincere, if fanatical pi

st, what erring mortal may do to guard this realm, and face the evils thou foreseest in the Far-that will

ready proclaimed, by the rebels, Earl of Northumbria; the shires of Nottingham, Derby, and Lincoln, had poured forth their hardy Dane populations

sent from thegn to thegn, and town to town. Fresh messengers were despatched to Gurth to collect the whole force of his own earldom, and haste by q

outh a noiseless sagacity that seemed ever provident for Harold. With his sombre, smileless cheek, and gloom of beauty, bowed as if beneath

er hands as he entered, and said, "Thou hast failed

dy be bless

ich reddened fitfully his hueless countenance with its raven hair; "I have told thy mother tha

re thy coming I prayed against the long blind yearning of my hea

imed the Ear

ber, as if out of the hearing of Haco, who turned his face towards t

No; day by day have I sought the lore of Hilda, and at night I have watched with her by the fount, and the elm, and the tomb; and I know that thou hast gone through dire peril; the

s?" said the Ea

at now darkens the brow of Haco! Seest thou not that the hand of death

uth, and nurtured in solitary dreams. Thou has

cried, 'Harold is in England!'-'How?-Why thinkest thou so?' said I. And Edith answered, 'I feel it by the touch of the earth, by the breath of the air.' This is more than love, Harold. I knew two twins who had the same instinct of each other's comings and goings, and were present each to each even when absent:

thou hast not reproached me that my mission failed to fulfil my promise. Welcome

e. He was compelled to ride slowly through the streets, for he was recognised; and cheapm

mariner, when, with wet garments, he struggles to shore through the storm. And kind and loving

d over the road towards the Roman home, when, as he spurred his steed, he heard behind him ho

iefly, as he gained his s

to stay in my mother's house,

t the more the orphan. Henceforth I have devoted to thee my life! And my life my dead and dread father hath left

ant manhood, meet wile by wile, and thus suddenly entangle him in his own meshes, had already mingled an inexpressible bitterness with his pity and affection for his brother's son. But, st

h me, then; but pardon a dull comrade, for when

bbler. Three things are ever silen

thrown from the dim forest trees and the distant hillocks. Alternately through shade and through light rode they on; the bulls gazing on them from hol

e romance of his life, that Harold approached the home of the Vala; and as now the hillock,

tly. "Hill, ruin, grave-mound- but wh

en this spot befor

through the fading leaves, on the eve before I left this land for the Norman, here did I wander

d Harold; and then he ask

n the skein; that I should save thee from a

o anger. They mislead us by riddles which our hot hearts interpret according to their own desires

eheld a maiden, still young, and of beauty surpassing all that the court of Normandy boasted of female loveliness. She was seated on the sward;-while a girl younger, and scarcely indeed grown into womanhood, reclined at her feet, and leaning her cheek upon her hand, seemed hushed in listen

that subject the most popular with the Saxon poets, the mystic life, death, and resurrection of the fa

F THE PHO

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rave the funeral pyre to li

er doth mean to image out in the phoenix the r

said, mo

is youth-the things and places dear to him in h

have known," answered the betrothed. "Those persons at least

one bound he was at Edith's side, and with o

ome to-night-I knew it, Har