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+The Project Gutenberg EBook Harold, by Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Book 9.
+#108 in our series by Edward Bulwer-Lytton
+
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+Title: Harold, Book 9.
+       The Last Of The Saxon Kings
+
+Author: Edward Bulwer-Lytton
+
+Release Date: March 2005  [EBook #7680]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on April 8, 2003]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
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+
+
+
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HAROLD, BY LYTTON, BOOK 9 ***
+
+
+
+This eBook was produced by Tapio Riikonen
+and David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+BOOK IX.
+
+
+THE BONES OF THE DEAD.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+
+William, Count of the Normans, sate in a fair chamber of his palace of
+Rouen; and on the large table before him were ample evidences of the
+various labours, as warrior, chief, thinker, and statesman, which
+filled the capacious breadth of that sleepless mind.
+
+There lay a plan of the new port of Cherbourg, and beside it an open
+MS. of the Duke's favourite book, the Commentaries of Caesar, from
+which, it is said, he borrowed some of the tactics of his own martial
+science; marked, and dotted, and interlined with his large bold
+handwriting, were the words of the great Roman.  A score or so of long
+arrows, which had received some skilful improvement in feather or
+bolt, lay carelessly scattered over some architectural sketches of a
+new Abbey Church, and the proposed charter for its endowment.  An open
+cyst, of the beautiful workmanship for which the English goldsmiths
+were then pre-eminently renowned, that had been among the parting
+gifts of Edward, contained letters from the various potentates near
+and far, who sought his alliance or menaced his repose.
+
+On a perch behind him sate his favourite Norway falcon unhooded, for
+it had been taught the finest polish in its dainty education--viz.,
+"to face company undisturbed."  At a kind of easel at the farther end
+of the hall, a dwarf, misshapen in limbs, but of a face singularly
+acute and intelligent, was employed in the outline of that famous
+action at Val des Dunes, which had been the scene of one of the most
+brilliant of William's feats in arms--an outline intended to be
+transferred to the notable "stitchwork" of Matilda the Duchess.
+
+Upon the floor, playing with a huge boar-hound of English breed, that
+seemed but ill to like the play, and every now and then snarled and
+showed his white teeth, was a young boy, with something of the Duke's
+features, but with an expression more open and less sagacious; and
+something of the Duke's broad build of chest and shoulder, but without
+promise of the Duke's stately stature, which was needed to give grace
+and dignity to a strength otherwise cumbrous and graceless.  And
+indeed, since William's visit to England, his athletic shape had lost
+much of its youthful symmetry, though not yet deformed by that
+corpulence which was a disease almost as rare in the Norman as the
+Spartan.
+
+Nevertheless, what is a defect in the gladiator is often but a beauty
+in the prince; and the Duke's large proportions filled the eye with a
+sense both of regal majesty and physical power.  His countenance, yet
+more than his form, showed the work of time; the short dark hair was
+worn into partial baldness at the temples by the habitual friction of
+the casque, and the constant indulgence of wily stratagem and
+ambitious craft had deepened the wrinkles round the plotting eye and
+the firm mouth: so that it was only by an effort like that of an
+actor, that his aspect regained the knightly and noble frankness it
+had once worn.  The accomplished prince was no longer, in truth, what
+the bold warrior had been,--he was greater in state and less in soul.
+And already, despite all his grand qualities as a ruler, his imperious
+nature had betrayed signs of what he (whose constitutional sternness
+the Norman freemen, not without effort, curbed into the limits of
+justice) might become, if wider scope were afforded to his fiery
+passions and unsparing will.
+
+Before the Duke, who was leaning his chin on his hand, stood Mallet de
+Graville, speaking earnestly, and his discourse seemed both to
+interest and please his lord.
+
+"Eno'!" said William, "I comprehend the nature of the land and its
+men,--a land that, untaught by experience, and persuaded that a peace
+of twenty or thirty years must last till the crack of doom, neglects
+all its defences, and has not one fort, save Dover, between the coast
+and the capital,--a land which must be won or lost by a single battle,
+and men (here the Duke hesitated,) and men," he resumed with a sigh,
+"whom it will be so hard to conquer that, pardex, I don't wonder they
+neglect their fortresses.  Enough I say, of them.  Let us return to
+Harold,--thou thinkest, then, that he is worthy of his fame?"
+
+"He is almost the only Englishman I have seen," answered De Graville,
+"who hath received scholarly rearing and nurture; and all his
+faculties are so evenly balanced, and all accompanied by so composed a
+calm, that methinks, when I look at and hear him, I contemplate some
+artful castle,--the strength of which can never be known at the first
+glance, nor except by those who assail it."
+
+"Thou art mistaken, Sire de Graville," said the Duke, with a shrewd
+and cunning twinkle of his luminous dark eyes.  "For thou tellest me
+that he hath no thought of my pretensions to the English throne,--that
+he inclines willingly to thy suggestions to come himself to my court
+for the hostages,--that, in a word, he is not suspicious."
+
+"Certes, he is not suspicious," returned Mallet.
+
+"And thinkest thou that an artful castle were worth much without
+warder or sentry,--or a cultivated mind strong and safe, without its
+watchman,--Suspicion?"
+
+"Truly, my lord speaks well and wisely," said the knight, startled;
+"but Harold is a man thoroughly English, and the English are a gens
+the least suspecting of any created thing between an angel and a
+sheep."
+
+William laughed aloud.  But his laugh was checked suddenly; for at
+that moment a fierce yell smote his ears, and looking hastily up, he
+saw his hound and his son rolling together on the ground, in a grapple
+that seemed deadly.  William sprang to the spot; but the boy, who was
+then under the dog, cried out, "Laissez aller!  Laissez aller! no
+rescue!  I will master my own foe;" and, so saying, with a vigorous
+effort he gained his knee, and with both hands griped the hound's
+throat, so that the beast twisted in vain, to and fro, with gnashing
+jaws, and in another minute would have panted out its last.
+
+"I may save my good hound now," said William, with the gay smile of
+his earlier days, and, though not without some exertion of his
+prodigious strength, he drew the dog from his son's grasp.
+
+"That was ill done, father," said Robert, surnamed even then the
+Courthose, "to take part with thy son's foe."
+
+"But my son's foe is thy father's property, my vaillant," said the
+Duke; "and thou must answer to me for treason in provoking quarrel and
+feud with my own fourfooted vavasour."
+
+"It is not thy property, father; thou gavest the dog to me when a
+whelp."
+
+"Fables, Monseigneur de Courthose; I lent it to thee but for a day,
+when thou hadst put out thine ankle bone in jumping off the rampire;
+and all maimed as thou went, thou hadst still malice enow in thee to
+worry the poor beast into a fever."
+
+"Give or lent, it is the same thing, father; what I have once, that
+will I hold, as thou didst before me, in thy cradle."
+
+Then the great Duke, who in his own house was the fondest and weakest
+of men, was so doltish and doting as to take the boy in his arms and
+kiss him, nor, with all his far-sighted sagacity, deemed he that in
+that kiss lay the seed of the awful curse that grew up from a father's
+agony; to end in a son's misery and perdition.
+
+Even Mallet de Graville frowned at the sight of the sire's infirmity,
+--even Turold the dwarf shook his head.  At that moment an officer
+entered, and announced that an English nobleman, apparently in great
+haste (for his horse had dropped down dead as he dismounted), had
+arrived at the palace, and craved instant audience of the Duke.
+William put down the boy, gave the brief order for the stranger's
+admission, and, punctilious in ceremonial, beckoning De Graville to
+follow him, passed at once into the next chamber, and seated himself
+on his chair of state.
+
+In a few moments one of the seneschals of the palace ushered in a
+visitor, whose long moustache at once proclaimed him Saxon, and in
+whom De Graville with surprise recognised his old friend, Godrith.
+The young thegn, with a reverence more hasty than that to which
+William was accustomed, advanced to the foot of the days, and, using
+the Norman language, said, in a voice thick with emotion:
+
+"From Harold the Earl, greeting to thee, Monseigneur.  Most foul and
+unchristian wrong hath been done the Earl by thy liegeman, Guy, Count
+of Ponthieu.  Sailing hither in two barks from England, with intent to
+visit thy court, storm and wind drove the Earl's vessels towards the
+mouth of the Somme [187]; there landing, and without fear, as in no
+hostile country, he and his train were seized by the Count himself,
+and cast into prison in the castle of Belrem [188].   A dungeon fit
+but for malefactors holds, while I speak, the first lord of England,
+and brother-in-law to its king.  Nay, hints of famine, torture, and
+death itself, have been darkly thrown out by this most disloyal count,
+whether in earnest, or with the base view of heightening ransom.  At
+length, wearied perhaps by the Earl's firmness and disdain, this
+traitor of Ponthieu hath permitted me in the Earl's behalf to bear the
+message of Harold.  He came to thee as to a prince and a friend;
+sufferest thou thy liegeman to detain him as a thief or a foe?"
+
+"Noble Englishman," replied William, gravely, "this is a matter more
+out of my cognisance than thou seemest to think.  It is true that Guy,
+Count of Ponthieu, holds fief under me, but I have no control over the
+laws of his realm.  And by those laws, he hath right of life and death
+over all stranded and waifed on his coast. Much grieve I for the
+mishap of your famous Earl, and what I can do, I will; but I can only
+treat in this matter with Guy as prince with prince, not as lord to
+vassal.  Meanwhile I pray you to take rest and food; and I will seek
+prompt counsel as to the measures to adopt."
+
+The Saxon's face showed disappointment and dismay at this answer, so
+different from what he had expected; and he replied with the natural
+honest bluntness which all his younger affection of Norman manners had
+never eradicated:
+
+"Food will I not touch, nor wine drink, till thou, Lord Count, hast
+decided what help, as noble to noble, Christian to Christian, man to
+man, thou givest to him who has come into this peril solely from his
+trust in thee."
+
+"Alas!" said the grand dissimulator, "heavy is the responsibility with
+which thine ignorance of our land, laws, and men would charge me.  If
+I take but one false step in this matter, woe indeed to thy lord!  Guy
+is hot and haughty, and in his droits; he is capable of sending me the
+Earl's head in reply to too dure a request for his freedom.  Much
+treasure and broad lands will it cost me, I fear, to ransom the Earl.
+But be cheered; half my duchy were not too high a price for thy lord's
+safety.  Go, then, and eat with a good heart, and drink to the Earl's
+health with a hopeful prayer."
+
+"And it please you, my lord," said De Graville, "I know this gentle
+thegn, and will beg of you the grace to see to his entertainment, and
+sustain his spirits."
+
+"Thou shalt, but later; so noble a guest none but my chief seneschal
+should be the first to honour."  Then turning to the officer in
+waiting, he bade him lead the Saxon to the chamber tenanted by William
+Fitzosborne (who then lodged within the palace), and committed him to
+that Count's care.
+
+As the Saxon sullenly withdrew, and as the door closed on him, William
+rose and strode to and fro the room exultingly.
+
+"I have him! I have him!" he cried aloud; "not as free guest, but as
+ransomed captive.  I have him--the Earl!--I have him!  Go, Mallet, my
+friend, now seek this sour-looking Englishman; and, hark thee! fill
+his ear with all the tales thou canst think of as to Guy's cruelty and
+ire.  Enforce all the difficulties that lie in my way towards the
+Earl's delivery.  Great make the danger of the Earl's capture, and
+vast all the favour of release.  Comprehendest thou?"
+
+"I am Norman, Monseigneur," replied De Graville, with a slight smile;
+"and we Normans can make a short mantle cover a large space.  You will
+not be displeased with my address."
+
+"Go then--go," said William, "and send me forthwith--Lanfranc--no,
+hold--not Lanfranc, he is too scrupulous; Fitzosborne--no, too
+haughty.  Go, first, to my brother, Odo of Bayeux, and pray him to
+seek me on the instant."
+
+The knight bowed and vanished, and William continued to pace the room,
+with sparkling eyes and murmuring lips.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+
+Not till after repeated messages, at first without talk of ransom and
+in high tone, affected, no doubt, by William to spin out the
+negotiations, and augment the value of his services, did Guy of
+Ponthieu consent to release his illustrious captive,--the guerdon, a
+large sum and un bel maneir [189] on the river Eaulne.  But whether
+that guerdon were the fair ransom fee, or the price for concerted
+snare, no man now can say, and sharper than ours the wit that forms
+the more likely guess.  These stipulations effected, Guy himself
+opened the doors of the dungeon; and affecting to treat the whole
+matter as one of law and right, now happily and fairly settled, was as
+courteous and debonnair as he had before been dark and menacing.
+
+He even himself, with a brilliant train, accompanied Harold to the
+Chateau d'Eu [190], whither William journeyed to give him the meeting;
+and laughed with a gay grace at the Earl's short and scornful replies
+to his compliments and excuses.  At the gates of this chateau, not
+famous, in after times, for the good faith of its lords, William
+himself, laying aside all the pride of etiquette which he had
+established at his court, came to receive his visitor; and aiding him
+to dismount embraced him cordially, amidst a loud fanfaron of fifes
+and trumpets.
+
+The flower of that glorious nobility, which a few generations had
+sufficed to rear out of the lawless pirates of the Baltic, had been
+selected to do honour alike to guest and host.
+
+There were Hugo de Montfort and Roger de Beaumont, famous in council
+as in the field, and already grey with fame.  There was Henri, Sire de
+Ferrers, whose name is supposed to have arisen from the vast forges
+that burned around his castle, on the anvils of which were welded the
+arms impenetrable in every field.  There was Raoul de Tancarville, the
+old tutor of William, hereditary Chamberlain of the Norman Counts; and
+Geoffroi de Mandeville, and Tonstain the Fair, whose name still
+preserved, amidst the general corruption of appellations, the evidence
+of his Danish birth; and Hugo de Grantmesnil, lately returned from
+exile; and Humphrey de Bohun, whose old castle in Carcutan may yet be
+seen; and St. John, and Lacie, and D'Aincourt, of broad lands between
+the Maine and the Oise; and William de Montfichet, and Roger,
+nicknamed "Bigod," and Roger de Mortemer; and many more, whose fame
+lives in another land than that of Neustria!  There, too, were the
+chief prelates and abbots of a church that since William's accession
+had risen into repute with Rome and with Learning, unequalled on this
+side the Alps; their white aubes over their gorgeous robes; Lanfranc,
+and the Bishop of Coutance, and the Abbot of Bec, and foremost of all
+in rank, but not in learning, Odo of Bayeux.
+
+So great the assemblage of Quens and prelates, that there was small
+room in the courtyard for the lesser knights and chiefs, who yet
+hustled each other, with loss of Norman dignity, for a sight of the
+lion which guarded England.  And still, amidst all those men of mark
+and might, Harold, simple and calm, looked as he had looked on his
+war-ship in the Thames, the man who could lead them all!
+
+From those, indeed, who were fortunate enough to see him as he passed
+up by the side of William, as tall as the Duke, and no less erect--of
+far slighter bulk, but with a strength almost equal, to a practised
+eye, in his compacter symmetry and more supple grace,--from those who
+saw him thus, an admiring murmur rose; for no men in the world so
+valued and cultivated personal advantages as the Norman knighthood.
+
+Conversing easily with Harold, and well watching him while he
+conversed, the Duke led his guest into a private chamber in the third
+floor [191] of the castle, and in that chamber were Haco and Wolnoth.
+
+"This, I trust, is no surprise to you," said the Duke, smiling; "and
+now I shall but mar your commune."  So saying, he left the room, and
+Wolnoth rushed to his brother's arms, while Haco, more timidly, drew
+near and touched the Earl's robe.
+
+As soon as the first joy of the meeting was over, the Earl said to
+Haco, whom he had drawn to his breast with an embrace as fond as that
+bestowed on Wolnoth:
+
+"Remembering thee a boy, I came to say to thee, 'Be my son;' but
+seeing thee a man, I change the prayer;--supply thy father's place,
+and be my brother!  And thou, Wolnoth, hast thou kept thy word to me?
+Norman is thy garb, in truth; is thy heart still English?"
+
+"Hist!" whispered Haco; "hist!  We have a proverb, that walls have
+ears."
+
+"But Norman walls can hardly understand our broad Saxon of Kent, I
+trust," said Harold, smiling, though with a shade on his brow.
+
+"True; continue to speak Saxon," said Haco, "and we are safe."
+
+"Safe!" echoed Harold.
+
+"Haco's fears are childish, my brother," said Wolnoth, "and he wrongs
+the Duke."
+
+"Not the Duke, but the policy which surrounds him like an atmosphere,"
+exclaimed Haco.  "Oh, Harold, generous indeed wert thou to come hither
+for thy kinsfolk--generous!  But for England's weal, better that we
+had rotted out our lives in exile, ere thou, hope and prop of England,
+set foot in these webs of wile."
+
+"Tut!" said Wolnoth, impatiently; "good is it for England that the
+Norman and Saxon should be friends."  Harold, who had lived to grow as
+wise in men's hearts as his father, save when the natural trustfulness
+that lay under his calm reserve lulled his sagacity, turned his eye
+steadily on the faces of his two kinsmen; and he saw at the first
+glance that a deeper intellect and a graver temper than Wolnoth's fair
+face betrayed characterised the dark eye and serious brow of Haco.  He
+therefore drew his nephew a little aside, and said to him:
+
+"Forewarned is forearmed.  Deemest thou that this fairspoken Duke will
+dare aught against my life?"
+
+"Life, no; liberty, yes."
+
+Harold startled, and those strong passions native to his breast, but
+usually curbed beneath his majestic will, heaved in his bosom and
+flashed in his eye.
+
+"Liberty!--let him dare!  Though all his troops paved the way from his
+court to his coasts, I would hew my way through their ranks."
+
+"Deemest thou that I am a coward?" said Haco, simply, "yet contrary to
+all law and justice, and against King Edward's well-known
+remonstrance, hath not the Count detained me years, yea, long years,
+in his land?  Kind are his words, wily his deeds.  Fear not force;
+fear fraud."
+
+"I fear neither," answered Harold, drawing himself up, "nor do I
+repent me one moment--No! nor did I repent in the dungeon of that
+felon Count, whom God grant me life to repay with fire and sword for
+his treason--that I myself have come hither to demand my kinsmen.  I
+come in the name of England, strong in her might, and sacred in her
+majesty."
+
+Before Haco could reply, the door opened, and Raoul de Tancarville, as
+Grand Chamberlain, entered, with all Harold's Saxon train, and a
+goodly number of Norman squires and attendants, bearing rich vestures.
+
+The noble bowed to the Earl with his country's polished courtesy, and
+besought leave to lead him to the bath, while his own squires prepared
+his raiment for the banquet to be held in his honour.  So all further
+conference with his young kinsmen was then suspended.
+
+The Duke, who affected a state no less regal than that of the Court of
+France, permitted no one, save his own family and guests, to sit at
+his own table.  His great officers (those imperious lords) stood
+beside his chair; and William Fitzosborne, "the Proud Spirit," placed
+on the board with his own hand the dainty dishes for which the Norman
+cooks were renowned.  And great men were those Norman cooks; and often
+for some "delicate," more ravishing than wont, gold chain and gem, and
+even "bel maneir," fell to their guerdon [192].  It was worth being a
+cook in those days!
+
+The most seductive of men was William in his fair moods; and he
+lavished all the witcheries at his control upon his guest. If
+possible, yet more gracious was Matilda the Duchess.  This woman,
+eminent for mental culture, for personal beauty, and for a spirit and
+ambition no less great than her lord's, knew well how to choose such
+subjects of discourse as might most flatter an English ear.  Her
+connection with Harold, through her sister's marriage with Tostig,
+warranted a familiarity almost caressing, which she assumed towards
+the comely Earl; and she insisted, with a winning smile, that all the
+hours the Duke would leave at his disposal he must spend with her.
+
+The banquet was enlivened by the song of the great Taillefer himself,
+who selected a theme that artfully flattered alike the Norman and the
+Saxon; viz., the aid given by Rolfganger to Athelstan, and the
+alliance between the English King and the Norman founder.  He
+dexterously introduced into the song praises of the English, and the
+value of their friendship; and the Countess significantly applauded
+each gallant compliment to the land of the famous guest. If Harold was
+pleased by such poetic courtesies, he was yet more surprised by the
+high honour in which Duke, baron, and prelate evidently held the Poet:
+for it was among the worst signs of that sordid spirit, honouring only
+wealth, which had crept over the original character of the Anglo-
+Saxon, that the bard or scop, with them, had sunk into great
+disrepute, and it was even forbidden to ecclesiastics [193] to admit
+such landless vagrants to their company.
+
+Much, indeed, there was in that court which, even on the first day,
+Harold saw to admire--that stately temperance, so foreign to English
+excesses, (but which, alas! the Norman kept not long when removed to
+another soil)--that methodical state and noble pomp which
+characterised the Feudal system, linking so harmoniously prince to
+peer, and peer to knight--the easy grace, the polished wit of the
+courtiers--the wisdom of Lanfranc, and the higher ecclesiastics,
+blending worldly lore with decorous, not pedantic, regard to their
+sacred calling--the enlightened love of music, letters, song, and art,
+which coloured the discourse both of Duke and Duchess and the younger
+courtiers, prone to emulate high example, whether for ill or good--all
+impressed Harold with a sense of civilisation and true royalty, which
+at once saddened and inspired his musing mind--saddened him when he
+thought how far behind-hand England was in much, with this
+comparatively petty principality--inspired him when he felt what one
+great chief can do for his native land.
+
+The unfavorable impressions made upon his thoughts by Haco's warnings
+could scarcely fail to yield beneath the prodigal courtesies lavished
+upon him, and the frank openness with which William laughingly excused
+himself for having so long detained the hostages, "in order, my guest,
+to make thee come and fetch them.  And, by St. Valery, now thou art
+here, thou shalt not depart, till, at least, thou hast lost in gentler
+memories the recollection of the scurvy treatment thou hast met from
+that barbarous Count.  Nay, never bite thy lip, Harold, my friend,
+leave to me thy revenge upon Guy.  Sooner or later, the very maneir he
+hath extorted from me shall give excuse for sword and lance, and then,
+pardex, thou shalt come and cross steel in thine own quarrel.  How I
+rejoice that I can show to the beau frere of my dear cousin and
+seigneur some return for all the courtesies the English King and
+kingdom bestowed upon me!  To-morrow we will ride to Rouen; there, all
+knightly sports shall be held to grace thy coming; and by St. Michael,
+knight-saint of the Norman, nought less will content me than to have
+thy great name in the list of my chosen chevaliers.  But the night
+wears now, and thou sure must need sleep;" and, thus talking, the Duke
+himself led the way to Harold's chamber, and insisted on removing the
+ouche from his robe of state.  As he did so, he passed his hand, as if
+carelessly, along the Earl's right arm.  "Ha!" said he suddenly, and
+in his natural tone of voice, which was short and quick, "these
+muscles have known practice!  Dost think thou couldst bend my bow!"
+
+"Who could bend that of--Ulysses?" returned the Earl, fixing his deep
+blue eye upon the Norman's.  William unconsciously changed colour, for
+he felt that he was at that moment more Ulysses than Achilles.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+
+Side by side, William and Harold entered the fair city of Rouen, and
+there, a succession of the brilliant pageants and knightly
+entertainments, (comprising those "rare feats of honour," expanded,
+with the following age, into the more gorgeous display of joust and
+tourney,) was designed to dazzle the eyes and captivate the fancy of
+the Earl.  But though Harold won, even by the confession of the
+chronicles most in favour of the Norman, golden opinions in a court
+more ready to deride than admire the Saxon,--though not only the
+"strength of his body," and "the boldness of his spirit," as shown in
+exhibitions unfamiliar to Saxon warriors, but his "manners," his
+"eloquence, intellect, and other good qualities," [194] were loftily
+conspicuous amidst those knightly courtiers, that sublime part of his
+character, which was found in his simple manhood and intense
+nationality, kept him unmoved and serene amidst all intended to
+exercise that fatal spell which Normanised most of those who came
+within the circle of Norman attraction.
+
+These festivities were relieved by pompous excursions and progresses
+from town to town, and fort to fort, throughout the Duchy, and,
+according to some authorities, even to a visit to Philip the French
+King at Compiegne.  On the return to Rouen, Harold and the six thegns
+of his train were solemnly admitted into that peculiar band of warlike
+brothers which William had instituted, and to which, following the
+chronicles of the after century, we have given the name of Knights.
+The silver baldrick was belted on, and the lance, with its pointed
+banderol, was placed in the hand, and the seven Saxon lords became
+Norman knights.
+
+The evening after this ceremonial, Harold was with the Duchess and her
+fair daughters--all children.  The beauty of one of the girls drew
+from him those compliments so sweet to a mother's ear.  Matilda looked
+up from the broidery on which she was engaged, and beckoned to her the
+child thus praised.
+
+"Adeliza," she said, placing her hand on the girl's dark locks,
+"though we would not that thou shouldst learn too early how men's
+tongues can gloze and flatter, yet this noble guest hath so high a
+repute for truth, that thou mayest at least believe him sincere when
+he says thy face is fair.  Think of it, and with pride, my child; let
+it keep thee through youth proof against the homage of meaner men;
+and, peradventure, St. Michael and St. Valery may bestow on thee a
+mate valiant and comely as this noble lord."
+
+The child blushed to her brow; but answered with the quickness of a
+spoiled infant--unless, perhaps, she had been previously tutored so to
+reply: "Sweet mother, I will have no mate and no lord but Harold
+himself; and if he will not have Adeliza as his wife, she will die a
+nun."
+
+"Froward child, it is not for thee to woo!" said Matilda, smiling.
+"Thou heardst her, noble Harold: what is thine answer?
+
+"That she will grow wiser," said the Earl, laughing, as he kissed the
+child's forehead.  "Fair damsel, ere thou art ripe for the altar, time
+will have sown grey in these locks; and thou wouldst smile indeed in
+scorn, if Harold then claimed thy troth."
+
+"Not so," said Matilda, seriously; "Highborn damsels see youth not in
+years but in fame--Fame, which is young for ever!"
+
+Startled by the gravity with which Matilda spoke, as if to give
+importance to what had seemed a jest, the Earl, versed in courts, felt
+that a snare was round him; and replied in a tone between jest and
+earnest: "Happy am I to wear on my heart a charm, proof against all
+the beauty even of this court."
+
+Matilda's face darkened; and William entering at that time with his
+usual abruptness, lord and lady exchanged glances, not unobserved by
+Harold.
+
+The Duke, however, drew aside the Saxon; and saying gaily, "We Normans
+are not naturally jealous; but then, till now, we have not had Saxon
+gallants closeted with our wives;" added more seriously, "Harold, I
+have a grace to pray at thy hands--come with me."
+
+The Earl followed William into his chamber, which he found filled with
+chiefs, in high converse; and William then hastened to inform him that
+he was about to make a military expedition against the Bretons; and
+knowing his peculiar acquaintance with the warfare, as with the
+language and manners, of their kindred Welch, he besought his aid in a
+campaign which he promised him should be brief.
+
+Perhaps the Earl was not, in his own mind, averse from returning
+William's display of power by some evidence of his own military skill,
+and the valour of the Saxon thegns in his train.  There might be
+prudence in such exhibition, and, at all events, he could not with a
+good grace decline the proposal.  He enchanted William therefore by a
+simple acquiescence; and the rest of the evening--deep into night--was
+spent in examining charts of the fort and country intended to be
+attacked.
+
+The conduct and courage of Harold and his Saxons in this expedition
+are recorded by the Norman chroniclers.  The Earl's personal exertions
+saved, at the passage of Coesnon, a detachment of soldiers, who would
+otherwise have perished in the quicksands; and even the warlike skill
+of William, in the brief and brilliant campaign, was, if not eclipsed,
+certainly equalled, by that of the Saxon chief.
+
+While the campaign lasted, William and Harold had but one table and
+one tent.  To outward appearance, the familiarity between the two was
+that of brothers; in reality, however, these two men, both so able--
+one so deep in his guile, the other so wise in his tranquil caution--
+felt that a silent war between the two for mastery was working on,
+under the guise of loving peace.
+
+Already Harold was conscious that the politic motives for his mission
+had failed him; already he perceived, though he scarce knew why, that
+William the Norman was the last man to whom he could confide his
+ambition, or trust for aid.  One day, as, during a short truce with
+the defenders of the place they were besieging, the Normans were
+diverting their leisure with martial games, in which Taillefer shone
+pre-eminent: while Harold and William stood without their tent,
+watching the animated field, the Duke abruptly exclaimed to Mallet de
+Graville, "Bring me my bow.  Now, Harold, let me see if thou canst
+bend it."
+
+The bow was brought, and Saxon and Norman gathered round the spot.
+
+"Fasten thy glove to yonder tree, Mallet," said the Duke, taking that
+mighty bow in his hand, and bending its stubborn yew into the noose of
+the string with practised ease.
+
+Then he drew the arc to his ear; and the tree itself seemed to shake
+at the shock, as the shaft, piercing the glove, lodged half-way in the
+trunk.
+
+"Such are not our weapons," said the Earl; "and ill would it become
+me, unpractised, so to peril our English honour, as to strive against
+the arm that could bend that arc and wing that arrow.  But, that I may
+show these Norman knights, that at least we have some weapon wherewith
+we can parry shaft and smite assailer,--bring me forth, Godrith, my
+shield and my Danish axe."
+
+Taking the shield and axe which the Saxon brought to him, Harold then
+stationed himself before the tree.  "Now, fair Duke," said he,
+smiling, "choose thou thy longest shaft--bid thy ten doughtiest
+archers take their bows; round this tree will I move, and let each
+shaft be aimed at whatever space in my mailless body I leave unguarded
+by my shield."
+
+"No!" said William, hastily; "that were murder."
+
+"It is but the common peril of war," said Harold, simply; and he
+walked to the tree.
+
+The blood mounted to William's brow, and the lion's thirst of carnage
+parched his throat.
+
+"An he will have it so," said he, beckoning to his archers; "let not
+Normandy be shamed.  Watch well, and let every shaft go home; avoid
+only the head and the heart; such orgulous vaunting is best cured by
+blood-letting."
+
+The archers nodded, and took their post, each at a separate quarter;
+and deadly indeed seemed the danger of the Earl, for as he moved,
+though he kept his back guarded by the tree, some parts of his form
+the shield left exposed, and it would have been impossible, in his
+quick-shifting movements, for the archers so to aim as to wound, but
+to spare life; yet the Earl seemed to take no peculiar care to avoid
+the peril; lifting his bare head fearlessly above the shield, and
+including in one gaze of his steadfast eye, calmly bright even at the
+distance, all the shafts of the archers.
+
+At one moment five of the arrows hissed through the air, and with such
+wonderful quickness had the shield turned to each, that three fell to
+the ground blunted against it, and two broke on its surface.
+
+But William, waiting for the first discharge, and seeing full mark at
+Harold's shoulder as the buckler turned, now sent forth his terrible
+shaft.  The noble Taillefer with a poet's true sympathy cried, "Saxon,
+beware!" but the watchful Saxon needed not the warning.  As if in
+disdain, Harold met not the shaft with his shield, but swinging high
+the mighty axe, (which with most men required both arms to wield it,)
+he advanced a step, and clove the rushing arrow in twain.
+
+Before William's loud oath of wrath and surprise left his lips, the
+five shafts of the remaining archers fell as vainly as their
+predecessors against the nimble shield.
+
+Then advancing, Harold said, cheerfully: "This is but defence, fair
+Duke--and little worth were the axe if it could not smite as well as
+ward.  Wherefore, I pray you, place upon yonder broken stone pillar,
+which seems some relic of Druid heathenesse, such helm and shirt of
+mail as thou deemest most proof against sword and pertuizan, and judge
+then if our English axe can guard well our English land."
+
+"If thy axe can cleave the helmet I wore at Bavent, when the Franks
+and their King fled before me," said the Duke, grimly, "I shall hold
+Caesar in fault, not to have invented a weapon so dread."
+
+And striding back into his pavilion, he came forth with the helm and
+shirt of mail, which was worn stronger and heavier by the Normans, as
+fighting usually on horseback, than by Dane and Saxon, who, mainly
+fighting on foot, could not have endured so cumbrous a burthen: and if
+strong and dour generally with the Norman, judge what solid weight
+that mighty Duke could endure!  With his own hand William placed the
+mail on the ruined Druid stone, and on the mail the helm.
+
+Harold looked long and gravely at the edge of the axe; it was so
+richly gilt and damasquined, that the sharpness of its temper could
+not well have been divined under that holiday glitter.  But this axe
+had come to him from Canute the Great, who himself, unlike the Danes,
+small and slight [195], had supplied his deficiency of muscle by the
+finest dexterity and the most perfect weapons.  Famous had been that
+axe in the delicate hand of Canute--how much more tremendous in the
+ample grasp of Harold!  Swinging now in both hands this weapon, with a
+peculiar and rapid whirl, which gave it an inconceivable impetus, the
+Earl let fall the crushing blow: at the first stroke, cut right in the
+centre, rolled the helm; at the second, through all the woven mail
+(cleft asunder, as if the slightest filigree work of the goldsmith,)
+shore the blade, and a great fragment of the stone itself came
+tumbling on the sod.
+
+The Normans stood aghast, and William's face was as pale as the
+shattered stone.  The great Duke felt even his matchless dissimulation
+fail him; nor, unused to the special practice and craft which the axe
+required, could he have pretended, despite a physical strength
+superior even to Harold's, to rival blows that seemed to him more than
+mortal.
+
+"Lives there any other man in the wide world whose arm could have
+wrought that feat?" exclaimed Bruse, the ancestor of the famous Scot.
+
+"Nay," said Harold, simply, "at least thirty thousand such men have I
+left at home!  But this was but the stroke of an idle vanity, and
+strength becomes tenfold in a good cause."
+
+The Duke heard, and fearful lest he should betray his sense of the
+latent meaning couched under his guest's words, he hastily muttered
+forth reluctant compliment and praise; while Fitzosborne, De Bohun,
+and other chiefs more genuinely knightly, gave way to unrestrained
+admiration.
+
+Then beckoning De Graville to follow him, the Duke strode off towards
+the tent of his brother of Bayeux, who, though, except on
+extraordinary occasions, he did not join in positive conflict, usually
+accompanied William in his military excursions, both to bless the
+host, and to advise (for his martial science was considerable) the
+council of war.
+
+The bishop, who, despite the sanctimony of the Court, and his own
+stern nature, was (though secretly and decorously) a gallant of great
+success in other fields than those of Mars [196], sate alone in his
+pavilion, inditing an epistle to a certain fair dame in Rouen, whom he
+had unwillingly left to follow his brother.  At the entrance of
+William, whose morals in such matters were pure and rigid, he swept
+the letter into the chest of relics which always accompanied him, and
+rose, saying, indifferently:
+
+"A treatise on the authenticity of St. Thomas's little finger!  But
+what ails you? you are disturbed!"
+
+"Odo, Odo, this man baffles me--this man fools me; I make no ground
+with him.  I have spent--heaven knows what I have spent," said the
+Duke, sighing with penitent parsimony, "in banquets, and ceremonies,
+and processions; to say nothing of my bel maneir of Yonne, and the sum
+wrung from my coffers by that greedy Ponthevin.  All gone--all wasted
+--all melted like snow! and the Saxon is as Saxon as if he had seen
+neither Norman splendour, nor been released from the danger by Norman
+treasure.  But, by the splendour Divine, I were fool indeed if I
+suffered him to return home.  Would thou hadst seen the sorcerer
+cleave my helmet and mail just now, as easily as if they had been
+willow twigs.  Oh, Odo, Odo, my soul is troubled, and St. Michael
+forsakes me!"
+
+While William ran on thus distractedly, the prelate lifted his eyes
+inquiringly to De Graville, who now stood within the tent, and the
+knight briefly related the recent trial of strength.
+
+"I see nought in this to chafe thee," said Odo; "the man once thine,
+the stronger the vassal, the more powerful the lord."
+
+"But he is not mine; I have sounded him as far as I dare go.  Matilda
+hath almost openly offered him my fairest child as his wife.  Nothing
+dazzles, nothing moves him.  Thinkest thou I care for his strong arm?
+Tut, no: I chafe at the proud heart that set the arm in motion; the
+proud meaning his words symbolled out, 'So will English strength guard
+English land from the Norman--so axe and shield will defy your mail
+and your shafts.'  But let him beware!" growled the Duke, fiercely,
+"or----"
+
+"May I speak," interrupted De Graville, "and suggest a counsel?"
+
+"Speak out, in God's name!" cried the Duke.
+
+"Then I should say, with submission, that the way to tame a lion is
+not by gorging him, but daunting.  Bold is the lion against open foes;
+but a lion in the toils loses his nature.  Just now, my lord said that
+Harold should not return to his native land----"
+
+"Nor shall he, but as my sworn man!" exclaimed the Duke.
+
+"And if you now put to him that choice, think you it will favour your
+views?  Will he not reject your proffers, and with hot scorn?"
+
+"Scorn! darest thou that word to me?" cried the Duke.  "Scorn! have I
+no headsman whose axe is as sharp as Harold's? and the neck of a
+captive is not sheathed in my Norman mail."
+
+"Pardon, pardon, my liege," said Mallet, with spirit; but to save my
+chief from a hasty action that might bring long remorse, I spoke thus
+boldly.  Give the Earl at least fair warning:--a prison, or fealty to
+thee, that is the choice before him!--let him know it; let him see
+that thy dungeons are dark, and thy walls impassable.  Threaten not
+his life--brave men care not for that!--threaten thyself nought, but
+let others work upon him with fear of his freedom.  I know well these
+Saxish men; I know well Harold; freedom is their passion, they are
+cowards when threatened with the doom of four walls." [197]
+
+"I conceive thee, wise son," exclaimed Odo.
+
+"Ha!" said the Duke, slowly; "and yet it was to prevent such suspicion
+that I took care, after the first meeting, to separate him from Haco
+and Wolnoth, for they must have learned much in Norman gossip, ill to
+repeat to the Saxon."
+
+"Wolnoth is almost wholly Norman," said the bishop, smiling; "Wolnoth
+is bound par-amours, to a certain fair Norman dame; and, I trow well,
+prefers her charms here to the thought of his return.  But Haco, as
+thou knowest, is sullen and watchful."
+
+"So much the better companion for Harold now," said De Graville.
+
+"I am fated ever to plot and to scheme!" said the Duke, groaning, as
+if he had been the simplest of men; "but, nathless, I love the stout
+Earl, and I mean all for his own good,--that is, compatibly with my
+rights and claims to the heritage of Edward my cousin."
+
+"Of course," said the bishop.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+
+The snares now spread for Harold were in pursuance of the policy thus
+resolved on.  The camp soon afterwards broke up, and the troops took
+their way to Bayeux.  William, without greatly altering his manner
+towards the Earl, evaded markedly (or as markedly replied not to)
+Harold's plain declarations, that his presence was required in
+England, and that he could no longer defer his departure; while, under
+pretence of being busied with affairs, he absented himself much from
+the Earl's company, or refrained from seeing him alone, and suffered
+Mallet de Graville, and Odo the bishop, to supply his place with
+Harold.  The Earl's suspicions now became thoroughly aroused, and
+these were fed both by the hints, kindly meant, of De Graville, and
+the less covert discourse of the prelate: while Mallet let drop, as in
+gossiping illustration of William's fierce and vindictive nature, many
+anecdotes of that cruelty which really stained the Norman's character,
+Odo, more bluntly, appeared to take it for granted that Harold's
+sojourn in the land would be long.
+
+"You will have time," said he, one day, as they rode together, "to
+assist me, I trust, in learning the language of our forefathers.
+Danish is still spoken much at Bayeux, the sole place in Neustria
+[198] where the old tongue and customs still linger; and it would
+serve my pastoral ministry to receive your lessons; in a year or so I
+might hope so to profit by them as to discourse freely with the less
+Frankish part of my flock."
+
+"Surely, Lord Bishop, you jest," said Harold, seriously; "you know
+well that within a week, at farthest, I must sail back for England
+with my young kinsmen."
+
+The prelate laughed.
+
+"I advise you, dear count and son, to be cautious how you speak so
+plainly to William.  I perceive that you have already ruffled him by
+such indiscreet remarks; and you must have seen eno' of the Duke to
+know that, when his ire is up, his answers are short but his arms are
+long."
+
+"You most grievously wrong Duke William," cried Harold, indignantly,
+"to suppose, merely in that playful humor, for which ye Normans are
+famous, that he could lay force on his confiding guest?"
+
+"No, not a confiding guest,--a ransomed captive.  Surely my brother
+will deem that he has purchased of Count Guy his rights over his
+illustrious prisoner.  But courage!  The Norman Court is not the
+Ponthevin dungeon; and your chains, at least, are roses."
+
+The reply of wrath and defiance that rose to Harold's lip, was checked
+by a sign from De Graville, who raised his finger to his lip with a
+face expressive of caution and alarm; and, some little time after, as
+they halted to water their horses, De Graville came up to him and said
+in a low voice, and in Saxon:
+
+"Beware how you speak too frankly to Odo.  What is said to him is said
+to William; and the Duke, at times, so acts on the spur of the moment
+that--But let me not wrong him, or needlessly alarm you."
+
+"Sire de Graville," said Harold, "this is not the first time that the
+Prelate of Bayeux hath hinted at compulsion, nor that you (no doubt
+kindly) have warned me of purpose hostile or fraudful.  As plain man
+to plain man, I ask you, on your knightly honour, to tell me if you
+know aught to make you believe that William the Duke will, under any
+pretext, detain me here a captive?"
+
+Now, though Mallet de Graville had lent himself to the service of an
+ignoble craft, he justified it by a better reason than complaisance to
+his lords; for, knowing William well, his hasty ire, and his
+relentless ambition, he was really alarmed for Harold's safety.  And,
+as the reader may have noted, in suggesting that policy of
+intimidation, the knight had designed to give the Earl at least the
+benefit of forewarning.  So, thus adjured, De Graville replied
+sincerely:
+
+"Earl Harold, on my honour as your brother in knighthood I answer your
+plain question.  I have cause to believe and to know that William will
+not suffer you to depart, unless fully satisfied on certain points,
+which he himself will, doubtless, ere long make clear to you."
+
+"And if I insist on my departure, not so satisfying him?"
+
+"Every castle on our road hath a dungeon as deep as Count Guy's; but
+where another William to deliver you from William?"
+
+"Over yon seas, a prince mightier than William, and men as resolute,
+at least, as your Normans."
+
+"Cher et puissant, my Lord Earl," answered De Graville, "these are
+brave words, but of no weight in the ear of a schemer so deep as the
+Duke.  Think you really, that King Edward--pardon my bluntness--would
+rouse himself from his apathy, to do more in your behalf than he has
+done in your kinsmen's--remonstrate and preach?--Are you even sure
+that on the representation of a man he hath so loved as William, he
+will not be content to rid his throne of so formidable a subject?  You
+speak of the English people; doubtless you are popular and beloved,
+but it is the habit of no people, least of all your own, to stir
+actively and in concert, without leaders.  The Duke knows the factions
+of England as well as you do.  Remember how closely he is connected
+with Tostig, your ambitious brother.  Have you no fear that Tostig
+himself, earl of the most warlike part of the kingdom, will not only
+do his best to check the popular feeling in your favour, but foment
+every intrigue to detain you here, and leave himself the first noble
+in the land?  As for other leaders, save Gurth (who is but your own
+vice earl), who is there that will not rejoice at the absence of
+Harold?  You have made foes of the only family that approaches the
+power of your own--the heirs of Leofric and Algar.--Your strong hand
+removed from the reins of the empire, tumults and dissensions ere long
+will break forth that will distract men's minds from an absent
+captive, and centre them on the safety of their own hearths, or the
+advancement of their own interests.  You see that I know something of
+the state of your native land; but deem not my own observation, though
+not idle, sufficed to bestow that knowledge.  I learn it more from
+William's discourses; William, who from Flanders, from Boulogne, from
+England itself, by a thousand channels, hears all that passes between
+the cliffs of Dover and the marches of Scotland."
+
+Harold paused long before he replied, for his mind was now thoroughly
+awakened to his danger; and, while recognising the wisdom and intimate
+acquaintance of affairs with which De Graville spoke, he was also
+rapidly revolving the best course for himself to pursue in such
+extremes.  At length he said:
+
+"I pass by your remarks on the state of England, with but one comment.
+You underrate Gurth, my brother, when you speak of him but as the vice
+earl of Harold.  You underrate one, who needs but an object, to excel,
+in arms and in council, my father Godwin himself.--That object a
+brother's wrongs would create from a brother's love, and three hundred
+ships would sail up the Seine to demand your captive, manned by
+warriors as hardy as those who wrested Neustria from King Charles."
+
+"Granted," said De Graville.  "But William, who could cut off the
+hands and feet of his own subjects for an idle jest on his birth,
+could as easily put out the eyes of a captive foe.  And of what worth
+are the ablest brain, and the stoutest arm, when the man is dependent
+on another for very sight!"
+
+Harold involuntarily shuddered, but recovering himself on the instant,
+he replied, with a smile:
+
+"Thou makest thy Duke a butcher more fell than his ancestor
+Rolfganger.  But thou saidst he needed but to be satisfied on certain
+points.  What are they?"
+
+"Ah, that thou must divine, or he unfold.  But see, William himself
+approaches you."
+
+And here the Duke, who had been till then in the rear, spurred up with
+courteous excuses to Harold for his long defection from his side; and,
+as they resumed their way, talked with all his former frankness and
+gaiety.
+
+"By the way, dear brother in arms," said he, "I have provided thee
+this evening with comrades more welcome, I fear, than myself--Haco and
+Wolnoth.  That last is a youth whom I love dearly: the first is
+unsocial eno', and methinks would make a better hermit than soldier.
+But, by St. Valery, I forgot to tell thee that an envoy from Flanders
+to-day, amongst other news, brought me some, that may interest thee.
+There is a strong commotion in thy brother Tostig's Northumbrian
+earldom, and the rumour runs that his fierce vassals will drive him
+forth and select some other lord: talk was of the sons of Algar--so
+I think ye called the stout dead Earl.  This looks grave, for my dear
+cousin Edward's health is failing fast. May the saints spare him long
+from their rest!"
+
+"These are indeed ill tidings," said the Earl; "and I trust that they
+suffice to plead at once my excuse for urging any immediate departure.
+Grateful I am for thy most gracious hostship, and thy just and
+generous intercession with thy liegeman" (Harold dwelt emphatically on
+the last word), "for my release from a capture disgraceful to all
+Christendom.  The ransom so nobly paid for me I will not insult thee,
+dear my lord, by affecting to repay; but such gifts as our cheapmen
+hold most rare, perchance thy lady and thy fair children will deign to
+receive at my hands.  Of these hereafter.  Now may I ask but a vessel
+from thy nearest port."
+
+"We will talk of this, dear guest and brother knight, on some later
+occasion.  Lo, yon castle--ye have no such in England.  See its
+vawmures and fosses!"
+
+"A noble pile," answered Harold.  "But pardon me that I press for--"
+
+"Ye have no such strongholds, I say, in England?" interrupted the Duke
+petulantly.
+
+"Nay," replied the Englishman, "we have two strongholds far larger
+than that--Salisbury Plain and Newmarket Heath! [199]--strongholds
+that will contain fifty thousand men who need no walls but their
+shields.  Count William, England's ramparts are her men, and her
+strongest castles are her widest plains."
+
+"Ah!" said the Duke, biting his lip, "ah, so be it--but to return:--in
+that castle, mark it well, the Dukes of Normandy hold their prisoners
+of state;" and then he added with a laugh; "but we hold you, noble
+captive, in a prison more strong--our love and our heart."
+
+As he spoke, he turned his eye full upon Harold, and the gaze of the
+two encountered: that of the Duke was brilliant, but stern and
+sinister; that of Harold, steadfast and reproachful.  As if by a
+spell, the eye of each rested long on that of the other--as the eyes
+of two lords of the forest, ere the rush and the spring.
+
+William was the first to withdraw his gaze, and as he did so, his lip
+quivered and his brow knit.  Then waving his hand for some of the
+lords behind to join him and the Earl, he spurred his steed, and all
+further private conversation was suspended.  The train pulled not
+bridle before they reached a monastery, at which they rested for the
+night.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+
+On entering the chamber set apart for him in the convent, Harold found
+Haco and Wolnoth already awaiting him; and a wound he had received in
+the last skirmish against the Bretons, having broken out afresh on the
+road, allowed him an excuse to spend the rest of the evening alone
+with his kinsmen.
+
+On conversing with them--now at length, and unrestrainedly--Harold saw
+everything to increase his alarm; for even Wolnoth, when closely
+pressed, could not but give evidence of the unscrupulous astuteness
+with which, despite all the boasted honour of chivalry, the Duke's
+character was stained.  For, indeed in his excuse, it must be said,
+that from the age of eight, exposed to the snares of his own kinsmen,
+and more often saved by craft than by strength, William had been
+taught betimes to justify dissimulation, and confound wisdom with
+guile.  Harold now bitterly recalled the parting words of Edward, and
+recognised their justice, though as yet he did not see all that they
+portended.  Fevered and disquieted yet more by the news from England,
+and conscious that not only the power of his House and the foundations
+of his aspiring hopes, but the very weal and safety of the land, were
+daily imperilled by his continued absence, a vague and unspeakable
+terror for the first time in his life preyed on his bold heart--a
+terror like that of superstition, for, like superstition, it was of
+the Unknown; there was everything to shun, yet no substance to grapple
+with.  He who could have smiled at the brief pangs of death, shrunk
+from the thought of the perpetual prison; he, whose spirit rose
+elastic to every storm of life, and exulted in the air of action,
+stood appalled at the fear of blindness;--blindness in the midst of a
+career so grand;--blindness in the midst of his pathway to a throne;--
+blindness, that curse which palsies the strong and enslaves the free,
+and leaves the whole man defenceless;--defenceless in an Age of Iron.
+
+What, too, were those mysterious points on which he was to satisfy the
+Duke?  He sounded his young kinsmen; but Wolnoth evidently knew
+nothing; Haco's eye showed intelligence, but by his looks and gestures
+he seemed to signify that what he knew he would only disclose to
+Harold.
+
+Fatigued, not more with his emotions than with that exertion to
+conceal them so peculiar to the English character (proud virtue of
+manhood so little appreciated, and so rarely understood!) he at length
+kissed Wolnoth, and dismissed him, yawning, to his rest. Haco,
+lingering, closed the door, and looked long and mournfully at the
+Earl.
+
+"Noble kinsman," said the young son of Sweyn, "I foresaw from the
+first, that as our fate will be thine;--only round thee will be wall
+and fosse; unless, indeed, thou wilt lay aside thine own nature--it
+will give thee no armour here--and assume that which----"
+
+"Ho!" interrupted the Earl, shaking with repressed passion, "I see
+already all the foul fraud and treason to guest and noble that
+surround me!  But if the Duke dare such shame he shall do so in the
+eyes of day.  I will hail the first boat I see on his river, or his
+sea-coast; and woe to those who lay hand on this arm to detain me!"
+
+Haco lifted his ominous eyes to Harold's; and there was something in
+their cold and unimpassioned expression which seemed to repel all
+enthusiasm, and to deaden all courage.
+
+"Harold," said he, "if but for one such moment thou obeyest the
+impulses of thy manly pride, or thy just resentment, thou art lost for
+ever; one show of violence, one word of affront, and thou givest the
+Duke the excuse he thirsts for.  Escape!  It is impossible.  For the
+last five years, I have pondered night and day the means of flight;
+for I deem that my hostageship, by right, is long since over; and no
+means have I seen or found.  Spies dog my every step, as spies, no
+doubt, dog thine."
+
+"Ha! it is true," said Harold; "never once have I wandered three paces
+from the camp or the troop, but, under some pretext, I have been
+followed by knight or courtier.  God and our Lady help me, if but for
+England's sake!  But what counsellest thou?  Boy, teach me; thou hast
+been reared in this air of wile--to me it is strange, and I am as a
+wild beast encompassed by a circle of fire."
+
+"Then," answered Haco, "meet craft by craft, smile by smile.  Feel
+that thou art under compulsion, and act,--as the Church itself pardons
+men for acting, so compelled."
+
+Harold started, and the blush spread red over his cheeks.
+
+Haco continued.
+
+"Once in prison, and thou art lost evermore to the sight of men.
+William would not then dare to release thee--unless, indeed, he first
+rendered thee powerless to avenge.  Though I will not malign him, and
+say that he himself is capable of secret murder, yet he has ever those
+about him who are.  He drops in his wrath some hasty word; it is
+seized by ready and ruthless tools.  The great Count of Bretagne was
+in his way; William feared him as he fears thee; and in his own court,
+and amongst his own men, the great Count of Bretagne died by poison.
+For thy doom, open or secret, William, however, could find ample
+excuse."
+
+"How, boy?  What charge can the Norman bring against a free
+Englishman?"
+
+"His kinsman Alfred," answered Haco, "was blinded, tortured, and
+murdered.  And in the court of Rouen, they say these deeds were done
+by Godwin, thy father.  The Normans who escorted Alfred were decimated
+in cold blood; again, they say Godwin thy father slaughtered them."
+
+"It is hell's own lie!" cried Harold,  "and so have I proved already
+to the Duke."
+
+"Proved?  No!  The lamb does not prove the cause which is prejudged by
+the wolf.  Often and often have I heard the Normans speak of those
+deeds, and cry that vengeance yet shall await them.  It is but to
+renew the old accusation, to say Godwin's sudden death was God's proof
+of his crime, and even Edward himself would forgive the Duke for thy
+bloody death.  But grant the best; grant that the more lenient doom
+were but the prison; grant that Edward and the English invaded
+Normandy to enforce thy freedom; knowest thou what William hath ere
+now done with hostages?  He hath put them in the van of his army, and
+seared out their eyes in the sight of both hosts.  Deemest thou he
+would be more gentle to us and to thee?  Such are thy dangers.  Be
+bold and frank,--and thou canst not escape them; be wary and wise,
+promise and feign,--and they are baffled: cover thy lion heart with
+the fox's hide until thou art free from the toils."
+
+"Leave me, leave me," said Harold, hastily.  "Yet, hold.  Thou didst
+seem to understand me when I hinted of--in a word, what is the object
+William would gain from me?"
+
+Haco looked around; again went to the door--again opened and closed
+it--approached, and whispered, "The crown of England!"
+
+The Earl bounded as if shot to the heart; then, again he cried: "Leave
+me.  I must be alone--alone now.  Go! go!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+
+Only in solitude could that strong man give way to his emotions; and
+at first they rushed forth so confused and stormy, so hurtling one the
+other, that hours elapsed before he could serenely face the terrible
+crisis of his position.
+
+The great historian of Italy has said, that whenever the simple and
+truthful German came amongst the plotting and artful Italians and
+experienced their duplicity and craft, he straightway became more
+false and subtle than the Italians themselves: to his own countrymen,
+indeed, he continued to retain his characteristic sincerity and good
+faith; but, once duped and tricked by the southern schemers, as if
+with a fierce scorn, he rejected troth with the truthless; he exulted
+in mastering them in their own wily statesmanship; and if reproached
+for insincerity, retorted with naive wonder, "Ye Italians, and
+complain of insincerity!  How otherwise can one deal with you--how be
+safe amongst you?"
+
+Somewhat of this revolution of all the natural elements of his
+character took place in Harold's mind that stormy and solitary night.
+In the transport of his indignation, he resolved not doltishly to be
+thus outwitted to his ruin.  The perfidious host had deprived himself
+of that privilege of Truth,--the large and heavenly security of man;--
+it was but a struggle of wit against wit, snare against snare.  The
+state and law of warfare had started up in the lap of fraudful peace;
+and ambush must be met by ambush, plot by plot.
+
+Such was the nature of the self-excuses by which the Saxon defended
+his resolves, and they appeared to him more sanctioned by the stake
+which depended on success--a stake which his undying patriotism
+allowed to be far more vast than his individual ambition.  Nothing was
+more clear than that if he were detained in a Norman prison, at the
+time of King Edward's death, the sole obstacle to William's design on
+the English throne would be removed.  In the interim, the Duke's
+intrigues would again surround the infirm King with Norman influences;
+and in the absence both of any legitimate heir to the throne capable
+of commanding the trust of the people, and of his own preponderating
+ascendancy both in the Witan and the armed militia of the nation, what
+could arrest the designs of the grasping Duke?  Thus his own liberty
+was indissolubly connected with that of his country; and for that
+great end, the safety of England, all means grew holy.
+
+When the next morning he joined the cavalcade, it was only by his
+extreme paleness that the struggle and agony of the past night could
+be traced, and he answered with correspondent cheerfulness William's
+cordial greetings.
+
+As they rode together--still accompanied by several knights, and the
+discourse was thus general, the features of the country suggested the
+theme of the talk.  For, now in the heart of Normandy, but in rural
+districts remote from the great towns, nothing could be more waste and
+neglected than the face of the land.  Miserable and sordid to the last
+degree were the huts of the serfs; and when these last met them on
+their way, half naked and hunger-worn, there was a wild gleam of hate
+and discontent in their eyes, as they louted low to the Norman riders,
+and heard the bitter and scornful taunts with which they were
+addressed; for the Norman and the Frank had more than indifference for
+the peasants of their land; they literally both despised and abhorred
+them, as of different race from the conquerors.  The Norman settlement
+especially was so recent in the land, that none of that amalgamation
+between class and class which centuries had created in England,
+existed there; though in England the theowe was wholly a slave, and
+the ceorl in a political servitude to his lord, yet public opinion,
+more mild than law, preserved the thraldom from wanton aggravation;
+and slavery was felt to be wrong and unchristian.  The Saxon Church--
+not the less, perhaps, for its very ignorance--sympathised more with
+the subject population and was more associated with it, than the
+comparatively learned and haughty ecclesiastics of the continent, who
+held aloof from the unpolished vulgar.  The Saxon Church invariably
+set the example of freeing the theowe and emancipating the ceorl, and
+taught that such acts were to the salvation of the soul.  The rude and
+homely manner in which the greater part of the Saxon thegns lived--
+dependent solely for their subsistence on their herds and agricultural
+produce, and therefore on the labour of their peasants--not only made
+the distinctions of rank less harsh and visible, but rendered it the
+interest of the lords to feed and clothe well their dependents.  All
+our records of the customs of the Saxons prove the ample sustenance
+given to the poor, and a general care of their lives and rights,
+which, compared with the Frank laws, may be called enlightened and
+humane.  And above all, the lowest serf ever had the great hope both
+of freedom and of promotion; but the beast of the field was holier in
+the eyes of the Norman, than the wretched villein [200].  We have
+likened the Norman to the Spartan, and, most of all, he was like him
+in his scorn of the helot.
+
+Thus embruted and degraded, deriving little from religion itself,
+except its terrors, the general habits of the peasants on the
+continent of France were against the very basis of Christianity--
+marriage.  They lived together for the most part without that tie, and
+hence the common name, with which they were called by their masters,
+lay and clerical, was the coarsest word contempt can apply to the sons
+of women.
+
+"The hounds glare at us," said Odo, as a drove of these miserable
+serfs passed along.  "They need ever the lash to teach them to know
+the master.  Are they thus mutinous and surly in England, Lord
+Harold?"
+
+"No: but there our meanest theowes are not seen so clad, nor housed in
+such hovels," said the Earl.
+
+"And is it really true that a villein with you can rise to be a
+noble?"
+
+"Of at least yearly occurrence.  Perhaps the forefathers of one-fourth
+of our Anglo-Saxon thegns held the plough, or followed some craft
+mechanical."
+
+Duke William politicly checked Odo's answer, and said mildly:
+
+"Every land its own laws: and by them alone should it be governed by a
+virtuous and wise ruler.  But, noble Harold, I grieve that you should
+thus note the sore point in my realm.  I grant that the condition of
+the peasants and the culture of the land need reform.  But in my
+childhood, there was a fierce outbreak of rebellion among the
+villeins, needing bloody example to check, and the memories of wrath
+between lord and villein must sleep before we can do justice between
+them, as please St. Peter, and by Lanfranc's aid, we hope to do.
+Meanwhile, one great portion of our villeinage in our larger towns we
+have much mitigated.  For trade and commerce are the strength of
+rising states; and if our fields are barren our streets are
+prosperous."
+
+Harold bowed, and rode musingly on.  That civilisation he had so much
+admired bounded itself to the noble class, and, at farthest, to the
+circle of the Duke's commercial policy.  Beyond it, on the outskirts
+of humanity, lay the mass of the people.  And here, no comparison in
+favour of the latter could be found between English and Norman
+civilisation.
+
+The towers of Bayeux rose dim in the distance, when William proposed a
+halt in a pleasant spot by the side of a small stream, overshadowed by
+oak and beech.  A tent for himself and Harold was pitched in haste,
+and after an abstemious refreshment, the Duke, taking Harold's arm,
+led him away from the train along the margin of the murmuring stream.
+
+They were soon in a remote, pastoral, primitive spot, a spot like
+those which the old menestrels loved to describe, and in which some
+pious hermit might, pleased, have fixed his solitary home.
+
+Halting where a mossy bank jutted over the water, William motioned to
+his companion to seat himself, and reclining at his side, abstractedly
+took the pebbles from the margin and dropped them into the stream.
+They fell to the botton with a hollow sound; the circle they made on
+the surface widened, and was lost; and the wave rushed and murmured
+on, disdainful.
+
+"Harold," said the Duke at last, "thou hast thought, I fear, that I
+have trifled with thy impatience to return.  But there is on my mind a
+matter of great moment to thee and to me, and it must out, before thou
+canst depart.  On this very spot where we now sit, sate in early
+youth, Edward thy King, and William thy host.  Soothed by the
+loneliness of the place, and the music of the bell from the church
+tower, rising pale through yonder glade, Edward spoke of his desire
+for the monastic life, and of his content with his exile in the Norman
+land.  Few then were the hopes that he should ever attain the throne
+of Alfred.  I, more martial, and ardent for him as myself, combated
+the thought of the convent, and promised, that, if ever occasion meet
+arrived, and he needed the Norman help, I would, with arm and heart,
+do a chief's best to win him his lawful crown.  Heedest thou me, dear
+Harold?"
+
+"Ay, my host, with heart as with ear."
+
+"And Edward then, pressing my hand as I now press thine, while
+answering gratefully, promised, that if he did, contrary to all human
+foresight, gain his heritage, he, in case I survived him, would
+bequeath that heritage to me.  Thy hand withdraws itself from mine."
+
+"But from surprise:  Duke William, proceed."
+
+"Now," resumed William, "when thy kinsmen were sent to me as hostages
+for the most powerful House in England--the only one that could thwart
+the desire of my cousin--I naturally deemed this a corroboration of
+his promise, and an earnest of his continued designs; and in this I
+was reassured by the prelate, Robert, Archbishop of Canterbury, who
+knew the most secret conscience of your King.  Wherefore my
+pertinacity in retaining those hostages; wherefore my disregard to
+Edward's mere remonstrances, which I not unnaturally conceived to be
+but his meek confessions to the urgent demands of thyself and House.
+Since then, Fortune or Providence hath favoured the promise of the
+King, and my just expectations founded thereon.  For one moment, it
+seemed indeed, that Edward regretted or reconsidered the pledge of our
+youth.  He sent for his kinsman, the Atheling, natural heir to the
+throne.  But the poor prince died.  The son, a mere child, if I am
+rightly informed, the laws of thy land will set aside, should Edward
+die ere the child grown a man; and, moreover, I am assured, that the
+young Edgar hath no power of mind or intellect to wield so weighty a
+sceptre as that of England.  Your King, also, even since your absence,
+hath had severe visitings of sickness, and ere another year his new
+Abbey may hold his tomb."
+
+William here paused; again dropped the pebbles into the stream, and
+glanced furtively on the unrevealing face of the Earl.  He resumed:
+
+"Thy brother Tostig, as so nearly allied to my House, would, I am
+advised, back my claims; and wert thou absent from England, Tostig, I
+conceive, would be in thy place as the head of the great party of
+Godwin.  But to prove how little I care for thy brother's aid compared
+with thine, and how implicitly I count on thee, I have openly told
+thee what a wilier plotter would have concealed--viz., the danger to
+which thy brother is menaced in his own earldom.  To the point, then,
+I pass at once.  I might, as my ransomed captive, detain thee here,
+until, without thee, I had won my English throne, and I know that thou
+alone couldst obstruct my just claims, or interfere with the King's
+will, by which that appanage will be left to me.  Nevertheless, I
+unbosom myself to thee, and would owe my crown solely to thine aid.  I
+pass on to treat with thee, dear Harold, not as lord with vassal, but
+as prince with prince.  On thy part, thou shalt hold for me the castle
+of Dover, to yield to my fleet when the hour comes; thou shalt aid me
+in peace, and through thy National Witan, to succeed to Edward, by
+whose laws I will reign in all things conformably with the English
+rites, habits, and decrees.  A stronger king to guard England from the
+Dane, and a more practised head to improve her prosperity, I am vain
+eno' to say thou wilt not find in Christendom.  On my part, I offer to
+thee my fairest daughter, Adeliza, to whom thou shalt be straightway
+betrothed: thine own young unwedded sister, Thyra, thou shalt give to
+one of my greatest barons: all the lands, dignities, and possessions
+thou holdest now, thou shalt still retain; and if, as I suspect, thy
+brother Tostig cannot keep his vast principality north the Humber, it
+shall pass to thee.  Whatever else thou canst demand in guarantee of
+my love and gratitude, or so to confirm thy power that thou shalt rule
+over thy countships as free and as powerful as the great Counts of
+Provence or Anjou reign in France over theirs, subject only to the
+mere form of holding in fief to the Suzerain, as I, stormy subject,
+hold Normandy under Philip of France,--shall be given to thee.  In
+truth, there will be two kings in England, though in name but one.
+And far from losing by the death of Edward, thou shalt gain by the
+subjection of every meaner rival, and the cordial love of thy grateful
+William.--Splendour of God, Earl, thou keepest me long for thine
+answer!"
+
+"What thou offerest," said the Earl, fortifying himself with the
+resolution of the previous night, and compressing his lips, livid with
+rage, "is beyond my deserts, and all that the greatest chief under
+royalty could desire.  But England is not Edward's to leave, nor mine
+to give: its throne rests with the Witan."
+
+"And the Witan rests with thee," exclaimed William sharply.  "I ask
+but for possibilities, man; I ask but all thine influence on my
+behalf; and if it be less than I deem, mine is the loss.  What dost
+thou resign?  I will not presume to menace thee; but thou wouldst
+indeed despise my folly, if now, knowing my designs, I let thee forth
+--not to aid, but betray them.  I know thou lovest England, so do I.
+Thou deemest me a foreigner; true, but the Norman and Dane are of
+precisely the same origin.  Thou, of the race of Canute, knowest how
+popular was the reign of that King.  Why should William's be less so?
+Canute had no right whatsoever, save that of the sword.  My right will
+be kinship to Edward--Edward's wish in my favour--the consent through
+thee of the Witan--the absence of all other worthy heir--my wife's
+clear descent from Alfred, which, in my children, restore the Saxon
+line, through its purest and noblest ancestry, to the throne.  Think
+over all this, and then wilt thou tell me that I merit not this
+crown?"  Harold yet paused, and the fiery Duke resumed:
+
+"Are the terms I give not tempting eno' to my captive--to the son of
+the great Godwin, who, no doubt falsely, but still by the popular
+voice of all Europe, had power of life and death over my cousin Alfred
+and my Norman knights? or dost thou thyself covet the English crown;
+and is it to a rival that I have opened my heart?"
+
+"Nay," said Harold in the crowning effort of his new and fatal lesson
+in simulation.  "Thou hast convinced me, Duke William: let it be as
+thou sayest."
+
+The Duke gave way to his joy by a loud exclamation, and then
+recapitulated the articles of the engagement, to which Harold simply
+bowed his head.  Amicably then the Duke embraced the Earl, and the two
+returned towards the tent.
+
+While the steeds were brought forth, William took the opportunity to
+draw Odo apart; and, after a short whispered conference, the prelate
+hastened to his barb, and spurred fast to Bayeux in advance of the
+party.  All that day, and all that night, and all the next morn till
+noon, courtiers and riders went abroad, north and south, east and
+west, to all the more famous abbeys and churches in Normandy, and holy
+and awful was the spoil with which they returned for the ceremony of
+the next day.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+
+The stately mirth of the evening banquet seemed to Harold as the
+malign revel of some demoniac orgy.  He thought he read in every face
+the exultation over the sale of England.  Every light laugh in the
+proverbial ease of the social Normans rang on his ear like the joy of
+a ghastly Sabbat.  All his senses preternaturally sharpened to that
+magnetic keenness in which we less hear and see than conceive and
+divine, the lowest murmur William breathed in the ear of Odo boomed
+clear to his own; the slightest interchange of glance between some
+dark-browed priest and large-breasted warrior, flashed upon his
+vision.  The irritation of his recent and neglected wound combined
+with his mental excitement to quicken, yet to confuse, his faculties.
+Body and soul were fevered.  He floated, as it were, between a
+delirium and a dream.
+
+Late in the evening he was led into the chamber where the Duchess sat
+alone with Adeliza and her second son William--a boy who had the red
+hair and florid hues of the ancestral Dane, but was not without a
+certain bold and strange kind of beauty, and who, even in childhood,
+all covered with broidery and gems, betrayed the passion for that
+extravagant and fantastic foppery for which William the Red King, to
+the scandal of Church and pulpit, exchanged the decorous pomp of his
+father's generation.  A formal presentation of Harold to the little
+maid was followed by a brief ceremony of words, which conveyed what to
+the scornful sense of the Earl seemed the mockery of betrothal between
+infant and bearded man.  Glozing congratulations buzzed around him;
+then there was a flash of lights on his dizzy eyes, he found himself
+moving through a corridor between Odo and William.  He was in his room
+hung with arras and strewed with rushes; before him in niches, various
+images of the Virgin, the Archangel Michael, St. Stephen, St. Peter,
+St. John, St. Valery; and from the bells in the monastic edifice hard
+by tolled the third watch [201] of the night--the narrow casement was
+out of reach, high in the massive wall, and the starlight was darkened
+by the great church tower.  Harold longed for air.  All his earldom
+had he given at that moment, to feel the cold blast of his native
+skies moaning round his Saxon wolds.  He opened his door, and looked
+forth.  A lanthorn swung on high from the groined roof of the
+corridor.  By the lanthorn stood a tall sentry in arms, and its gleam
+fell red upon an iron grate that jealously closed the egress.  The
+Earl closed the door, and sat down on his bed, covering his face with
+his clenched hand.  The veins throbbed in every pulse, his own touch
+seemed to him like fire.  The prophecies of Hilda on the fatal night
+by the bautastein, which had decided him to reject the prayer of
+Gurth, the fears of Edith, and the cautions of Edward, came back to
+him, dark, haunting, and overmasteringly.  They rose between him and
+his sober sense, whenever he sought to re-collect his thoughts, now to
+madden him with the sense of his folly in belief, now to divert his
+mind from the perilous present to the triumphant future they foretold;
+and of all the varying chaunts of the Vala, ever two lines seemed to
+burn into his memory, and to knell upon his ear, as if they contained
+the counsel they ordained him to pursue:
+
+    "GUILE BY GUILE OPPOSE, and never
+     Crown and brow shall Force dissever!"
+
+So there he sat, locked and rigid, not reclining, not disrobing, till
+in that posture a haggard, troubled, fitful sleep came over him; nor
+did he wake till the hour of prime [202], when ringing bells and
+tramping feet, and the hum of prayer from the neighbouring chapel,
+roused him into waking yet more troubled, and well-nigh as dreamy.
+But now Godrith and Haco entered the room, and the former inquired
+with some surprise in his tone, if he had arranged with the Duke to
+depart that day; "For," said he, "the Duke's hors-thegn has just been
+with me, to say that the Duke himself, and a stately retinue, are to
+accompany you this evening towards Harfleur, where a ship will be in
+readiness for our transport; and I know that the chamberlain (a
+courteous and pleasant man) is going round to my fellow-thegns in your
+train, with gifts of hawks, and chains, and broidered palls."
+
+"It is so," said Haco, in answer to Harold's brightening and appealing
+eye.
+
+"Go then, at once, Godrith," exclaimed the Earl, bounding to his feet,
+"have all in order to part at the first break of the trump.  Never, I
+ween, did trump sound so cheerily as the blast that shall announce our
+return to England.  Haste--haste!"
+
+As Godrith, pleased in the Earl's pleasure, though himself already
+much fascinated by the honours he had received and the splendor he had
+witnessed, withdrew, Haco said, "Thou has taken my counsel, noble
+kinsman?"
+
+"Question me not, Haco!  Out of my memory, all that hath passed here!"
+
+"Not yet," said Haco, with that gloomy and intense seriousness of
+voice and aspect, which was so at variance with his years, and which
+impressed all he said with an indescribable authority.  "Not yet; for
+even while the chamberlain went his round with the parting gifts, I,
+standing in the angle of the wall in the yard, heard the Duke's deep
+whisper to Roger Bigod, who has the guard of the keape, 'Have the men
+all armed at noon in the passage below the council-hall, to mount at
+the stamp of my foot: and if then I give thee a prisoner--wonder not,
+but lodge him--' The Duke paused; and Bigod said, 'Where, my liege?'
+And the Duke answered fiercely, 'Where? why, where but in the Tour
+noir?--where but in the cell in which Malvoisin rotted out his last
+hour?'  Not yet, then, let the memory of Norman wile pass away; let
+the lip guard the freedom still."
+
+All the bright native soul that before Haco spoke had dawned gradually
+back on the Earl's fair face, now closed itself up, as the leaves of a
+poisoned flower; and the pupil of the eye receding, left to the orb
+that secret and strange expression which had baffled all readers of
+the heart in the look of his impenetrable father.
+
+"Guile by guile oppose!" he muttered vaguely; then started, clenched
+his hand, and smiled.
+
+In a few moments, more than the usual levee of Norman nobles thronged
+into the room; and what with the wonted order of the morning, in the
+repast, the church service of tierce, and a ceremonial visit to
+Matilda, who confirmed the intelligence that all was in preparation
+for his departure, and charged him with gifts of her own needlework to
+his sister the Queen, and various messages of gracious nature, the
+time waxed late into noon without his having yet seen either William
+or Odo.
+
+He was still with Matilda, when the Lords Fitzosborne and Raoul de
+Tancarville entered in full robes of state, and with countenances
+unusually composed and grave, and prayed the Earl to accompany them
+into the Duke's presence.
+
+Harold obeyed in silence, not unprepared for covert danger, by the
+formality of the counts, as by the warnings of Haco; but, indeed,
+undivining the solemnity of the appointed snare.  On entering the
+lofty hall, he beheld William seated in state; his sword of office in
+his hand, his ducal robe on his imposing form, and with that
+peculiarly erect air of the head which he assumed upon all ceremonial
+occasions [203].  Behind him stood Odo of Bayeux, in aube and gallium;
+some score of the Duke's greatest vassals; and at a little distance
+from the throne chair, was what seemed a table; or vast chest, covered
+all over with cloth of gold.
+
+Small time for wonder or self-collection did the Duke give the Saxon.
+
+"Approach, Harold," said he, in the full tones of that voice, so
+singularly effective in command; "approach, and without fear, as
+without regret.  Before the members of this noble assembly--all
+witnesses of thy faith, and all guarantees of mine--I summon thee to
+confirm by oath the promises thou mad'st me yesterday; namely, to aid
+me to obtain the kingdom of England on the death of King Edward, my
+cousin; to marry my daughter Adeliza; and to send thy sister hither,
+that I may wed her, as we agreed, to one of my worthiest and prowest
+counts.  Advance thou, Odo, my brother, and repeat to the noble Earl
+the Norman form by which he will take the oath."
+
+Then Odo stood forth by that mysterious receptacle covered with the
+cloth of gold, and said briefly, "Thou wilt swear, as far as is in thy
+power, to fulfil thy agreement with William, Duke of the Normans, if
+thou live, and God aid thee; and in witness of that oath thou wilt lay
+thy hand upon the reliquaire," pointing to a small box that lay on the
+cloth of gold.
+
+All this was so sudden--all flashed so rapidly upon the Earl, whose
+natural intellect, however great, was, as we have often seen, more
+deliberate than prompt--so thoroughly was the bold heart, which no
+siege could have sapped, taken by surprise and guile--so paramount
+through all the whirl and tumult of his mind, rose the thought of
+England irrevocably lost, if he who alone could save her was in the
+Norman dungeons--so darkly did all Haco's fears, and his own just
+suspicions, quell and master him, that mechanically, dizzily,
+dreamily, he laid his hand on the reliquaire, and repeated, with
+automaton lips:
+
+"If I live, and if God aid me to it!"
+
+Then all the assembly repeated solemnly:
+
+"God aid him!"
+
+And suddenly, at a sign from William, Odo and Raoul de Tancarville
+raised the gold cloth, and the Duke's voice bade Harold look below.
+
+As when man descends from the gilded sepulchre to the loathsome
+charnel, so at the lifting of that cloth, all the dread ghastliness of
+Death was revealed.  There, from abbey and from church, from cyst and
+from shrine, had been collected all the relics of human nothingness in
+which superstition adored the mementos of saints divine; there lay,
+pell mell and huddled, skeleton and mummy--the dry dark skin, the
+white gleaming bones of the dead, mockingly cased in gold, and decked
+with rubies; there, grim fingers protruded through the hideous chaos,
+and pointed towards the living man ensnared; there, the skull grinned
+scoff under the holy mitre;--and suddenly rushed back, luminous and
+searing upon Harold's memory, the dream long forgotten, or but dimly
+remembered in the healthful business of life--the gibe and the wirble
+of the dead men's bones.
+
+"At that sight," say the Norman chronicles, "the Earl shuddered and
+trembled."
+
+"Awful, indeed, thine oath, and natural thine emotion," said the Duke;
+"for in that cyst are all those relics which religion deems the
+holiest in our land.  The dead have heard thine oath, and the saints
+even now record it in the halls of heaven!  Cover again the holy
+bones!"
+
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HAROLD, BY LYTTON, BOOK 9 ***
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