Harold, Book 10. The Last Of The Saxon Kings

ldra have not guarded me against peril, nor armed me against sin. Nay, perchance-but peace: I will no more tempt the dark art, I will no more seek to disentangle the awful

he same, whether seen or unmarked. Peradvent

y truth. My country alone can redeem me, by taking my life as a thing hallowed evermore to her service. Selfish ambition

ancing, "not even for Edith shalt thou listen to o

Hilda," he cried, "see henceforth my only Vala; let that n

hsmen (a franklin, or freed ceorl). Leaving there his horse, he summoned a boat, and, with Haco, was rowed over towards the fortified palace which then rose towards the west of London, jutting into the Thames, and which seems to have formed the outwork of the old Roman city. The palace, of re

Harold?" asked t

ir to the Saxon throne," replied Harold in a firm

mandy that the b

rned Harold. "I will pre

d a momen

y purpose; is it not

ro

Edith," answered Harold

el prevail, I may lose

d to call

sacrifice even Edi

methinks I could," sai

e, falling into decay, (as all things did which came under the care of Edward,) and mounting a stair that ran along the outside of the house, gained a low narrow door, which stood open. In the passage within were one or two of the King's house-carles who had been assigned to the young Atheling, with liveries of blue and D

old with a faint smi

hou comest hither with the same purp

hat pu

descendant of the Ironsides such a prince as we may commend to our decay

with your eyes will I see; as ye judge, will judge I," said Harold, dra

House, had exchanged looks of fear and trouble when Harold entered;

n the declining health of the King, the disturbed state of the realm, and the expediency, if possible, of uniting all suffrages in favour of the fittest successor. And in Harold's voice and manner, as in Harold's heart, there was nought that seemed c

ds, intelligible indeed from the affinity between Saxon and German, but still disagreeabl

t made so habitual a part of the serious education of youth, that the thegns smoothed their brows at the sight, and deemed the boy worthily occupied. At another end of the room, a grave Norman priest was seated at a table on which were books and writing implements; he was the tutor commiss

ent obeisance and paternal cordiality, the boy carelessly cr

doing? You trample my toys, which the good Norman bishop Wi

nds sooner with princes than with common men. Leave thy lure and thy toys, and wel

not tell me to learn Saxon, but Norman! and Godfroi yonder says, that if I know Norman well, Duke William will make me

displeasure and proud disgust. But Harold, with an

he great live for others. Wilt thou not be proud to live for this fair cou

t, he is the plague of my life! if I am Atheling, men are to live for me, not I for them; and if you te

hild threw himself on the floor with the other c

e quietly, and went to her br

the lowest ceorl would forfeit life rather than endure-a threat applied to the Atheling of England, the descendant of Saxon

silly sister," said th

s to care for your c

ns, his very moustache curling with ire. "He who ca

th your laidly moustache: I want to be made kn

" said Alred

and the child was pointing at him in mimicry, while Godfroi, the Norman tutor, smiled

r the Saxon land!" cried a thegn. "No m

fault of his nurture and rearing,-a neglected childhood, a Norman tut

undo what is done by circumstance, and, I fear, by nature. E

ptivity abroad!) who then, failing the Atheling, will save this realm from the Norman D

then?" murm

st, the wisest, the bravest! Stand forth, Harold the Earl, Thou art