Harold, Book 10. The Last Of The Saxon Kings

complin (or second vespers), when Alred entered unexpectedly. The old man's face was unusuall

hat thou wert ready to make all sacrifice to thy land, and further, that thou wouldst abide by the co

olemnity of the address; "I am ready, if the council so desire,

preme head in the Basileus of Britain. Mercia hath its March law and its prince; Northumbria its Dane law and its leader. To elect a king without civil war, these realms, for so they are, must unite with and sanction the Witans elsewhere held. Only thus can the kingdom be firm against foes without and anarchy within; and the more so, from the alliance between the new earls of those great provinces and the House of Gryffyth, which stil

id Harold, "but I knew beforehand that

ut the eager zeal of Mercia and Northumbria; to make the first guard thee from the Welch, the last be thy rampart against

rang to his

the heart that leans on mine! Thou knowest my pledge to Edith, my cousin; pledge hallowed by the

his burst, was much moved by its genuine angu

new alliance, the old tie is one of sin, which, as king, and as high example in high place to all men, thy conscience within, and the Church without, summon thee to break. How purify the erring lives of the churchman, if thyself a rebel to the Church? and if thou hast thought that thy power as king might prevail on the Roman Pontiff to grant dispensation

th his hands, and groaned

whose voice a brother's love can blend with a Christian's zeal; ai

, all argument drawn from reason, whether in the state of the land, or the new duties to which Harold was committed, were on the one side, and unanswera

me!-Resign her! and for another! I cannot-I cannot. Take from me the throne!-Oh vain heart of man, that so long des

nately plead and remonstrate, chide and soothe; and still Harold's heart clung to Edith's, with its bleeding roots. At length they, perhaps not unwisely, left him to himself; and as, whispering low their hopes and thei

his head a

trong in the flesh tha

it is because she loves the Earl more than her own life, that-once show her that the Earl's safety, greatness, honour, duty, lie in release from

han woman's devotion, only replied by an impatient gesture. Bu

orn wife already. Leave we awhile my brother, never the slave of passion, and with whom England must at last prevail over all selfish thought; and ride we at once to tell to Edith what we have told to hi

he prelate's reluctant countenance, "and leave we our r

te, "and thy mission suits the young and the

wound I inflict on the brother of my love; and my own heart bleeds in h