 CHAPTER 8 The messenger who brought William the tidings of Harold's ascension to the throne was a man named Tostig, Harold's brother. Though he was Harold's brother, he was still his bedridden enemy. Brothers or seldom friends and families were there as a crown to be contended for. There were, of course, no public modes of communicating intelligence in those days, and Tostig had learned the facts of Edward's death and Harold's coronation through spies, which he had stationed at certain points on the coast. He was himself at that time on the continent. He rode with all speed to Rouen to communicate the news to William, eager to incite him to commence hostilities against his brother. William Receiving Tostig's tidings When Tostig arrived at Rouen, William was in a park which lay in the vicinity of the city, trying a new bow that had been recently made for him. William was a man of prodigious muscular strength, and they gave him the credit of being able to use easily a bow which nobody else could bend. A part of this credit was doubtless due to the etiquette which in royal palaces and grounds leads all sensible courtiers to take good care never to succeed in attempts to excel the king. But notwithstanding this consideration, there is no doubt that the Duke really merited a great portion of the commendation that he received for his strength and dexterity in the new use of the bow. It was a weapon in which he took great interest. A new one had been made for him of great elasticity and strength, and he had gone out into the park with his officers to try its powers when Tostig arrived. Tostig followed him to the palace, and there advancing to his side communicated the tidings to him privately. William was greatly moved by the intelligence. His arrow dropped upon the ground. He gave the bow to an attendant. He stood for a time speechless, tying and untying the cordon of his cloak in his abstraction. Presently he began slowly to move away from the place and to return towards the city. His attendants followed him in silence, wondering what the exciting tidings could be which had produced so sudden and powerful an effect. William went to the castle hall, and walked to and fro for a long time, thoughtfully and evidently agitated. His attendants waited in silence, afraid to speak to him. Rumors began at length to circulate among them in respect to the nature of the intelligence which had been received. At length a great officer of state named Fitz Osborne arrived at the castle. As he passed through the courtyard and gates, the attendants and the people, knowing that he possessed in a great degree the confidence of his sovereign, asked him what the tidings were that had made such an impression. I know nothing about it, he said, but I will soon learn. So saying he advanced towards William, and accosted him by saying, Why should you conceal from us your news? It is reported in the city that the King of England is dead, and that Harold has violated his oaths to you, and has seized the kingdom. Is this true? William acknowledged that that was the intelligence by which he had been so vexed and chagrined. Fitz Osborne urged the Duke not to allow such events to depress or despair him. As for the death of Edwards, he said, That is an event past and sure, but cannot be recalled. But Harold's usurpation and treachery admits a very easy remedy. You have the right to the throne, and you have the soldiers necessary to enforce that right. Undertake the enterprise boldly, you will be sure to succeed. William revolved the subject in his mind for a few days, during which the exasperation and anger which the first receipt of the intelligence had produced upon him was succeeded by calm but indignant deliberation in respect to the course which he should pursue. He concluded to call a great council of state, and to lay the ease before them, not for the purpose of obtaining their advice, but to call their attention to the crisis in a formal and solemn manner, and to prepare them to act in concert in the subsequent measures to be pursued. The result of the deliberations of this council, guided doubtless by William's own designs, was that the first step should be to send an emissary to Harold to demand of him the fulfillment of his promises. The messenger was accordingly dispatched. He proceeded to London, and laid before Harold the communication with which he had been entrusted. This communication recounted the three promises which Harold had made, namely to send his daughter to Normandy to be married to one of William's generals, to marry William's daughter himself, and to maintain William's claims to the English crown on the death of Edward. He was to remind Harold also of the solemnity with which he had bound himself to fulfill these obligations, by oaths taken in the presence of the most sacred relics of the Church and in the most public and deliberate manner. Harold replied, One, that as to sending over his daughter to be married to one of William's generals, he could not do it, for his daughter was dead. He presumed he said that William did not wish him to send the corpse. Two, in respect to marrying William's daughter, to whom he had been affianced in Normandy, he was sorry to say that that was also out of his power, as he could not take a foreign wife without the consent of his people, which he was confident would never be given. Besides, he was already married, he said, to a Saxon lady of his own dominions. Three, in regard to the kingdom, it did not depend upon him, he said, to decide who should rule over England as Edward's successor, but upon the will of Edward himself and upon the English people. The English barons and nobles had decided with Edward's concurrence that he, Harold, was their legitimate and proper sovereign, and that it was not for him to controvert their will. However, much as he might be disposed to comply with William's wishes and to keep his promise, it was plain that it was out of his power, for in promising him the English crown, he had promised what he did not to him to give. Four, as to his oaths, he said that notwithstanding the secret presence of the sacred relics under the cloth of gold, he considered them as of no binding force upon his conscience, for he was constrained to take them as only means of escaping from duress in which he was virtually held in Normandy. The promises and oaths even, when exhorted by necessity, were null and void. The messenger returned to Normandy with these replies, and William immediately began to prepare for war. His first measure was to call a council of his most confidential friends and advisors, and to lay the subject before them. They cordially approved of the plan of an invasion of England, and promised to cooperate in the establishment of it to their utmost of power. The next step was to call a general council of all the chieftains and nobles of the land, and also the notables, as they were called, or principal officers and municipal authorities of the town. The main point of interest for the consideration of this assembly was whether the country would submit to the necessary taxation for raising the necessary funds. William had ample power, as a duke, to decide upon the invasion and to undertake it. He could also, without much difficulty, raise the necessary number of men, for every baron in the realm was bound, by the feudal conditions on which he held his land, to furnish his quota of men for any military enterprise in which his sovereign might see fit to engage. But, for so distant and vast in undertaking as this, William needed a much larger supply of funds than were usually required in the wars of those days. For raising such large supplies, the political institutions of the Middle Ages had not made any adequate provision. Governments then had no power of taxation, like that so freely exercised in modern times, and even now taxes in France and England take the form of grants from the people to the kings. And as to the contrivance so exceedingly ingenuous by which inexhaustible resources are open to governments at the present day, that is, the plan of borrowing the money and leaving posterity to pay or repudiate the debt, as they please no minister of finance had, in William's day, been brilliant enough to discover it. Thus each ruler had to rely, then, mainly on the rents and incomes from his own lands and other private resources, for the comparatively small amount of money that he needed in his brief campaigns. But now William perceived that ships must be built and equipped, and great stores of provisions accumulated, and arms and munitions of war provided, all of which would require a considerable outlay, and how was this money to be obtained? The General Assembly, which he convened, were greatly distracted by the discussion of the question. The quiet and peaceful citizens who inhabited the towns, the artisans and tradesmen, who wished for nothing but to be allowed to go on in their industrial pursuits in peace, were opposed to the whole project. They thought it unreasonable and absurd that they should be required to contribute from their earnings to enable their lord and master to go off on so distant and desperate an undertaking, from which, even if successful, they could derive no benefit whatever. Many of the barons, too, were opposed to the scheme. They thought it very likely to end in disaster and defeat, and they denied that their futile obligations to furnish men for their sovereign's wars was binding to the extent of requiring them to go out of the country and beyond the sea, to prosecute the claims of the throne in another kingdom. Others, on the other hand, among the members of Williams Assembly, were strongly disposed to favor the plan. They were more ardent, were more courageous than the rest, or perhaps their position and circumstance, were such that they had more to hope from the success of the enterprise than they or less to fear from its failure. Thus there was a great diversity of opinion, and as the parliamentary system of rules, by which a body of turbulent men, in modern times, are kept in some semblance of organization and order during a debate, had not then been developed. The meeting of these Norman deliberators was, for a time, a scene of uproar and confusion. The members gathered in groups, each speaker getting around him as many as he could obtain to listen to his o'ring, the more quiet and passive portion of the assembly moving to and fro from group to group, as they were attracted by the earnestness and eloquence of the different speakers, or by their approval of the sentiments which they heard them expressing. The scene, in fact, was like that presented in exciting times by a political caucus in America before it is called to order by the chairman. Fitz Osborne, the confidential friend and counselor, who has already been mentioned as one who ventured to accost the Duke at the time when the tidings of Edward's death and of Harold's ascension first reached him, now seeing that anything like definite and harmonious action on the part of this tumultuous assembly was out of the question, went to the Duke and proposed to him to give up the assembly as such, and make the best terms and arrangements that he could with the constituent elements of it, individually and severally. He would himself, he said, furnish forty ships, manned, equipped, and provisioned, and he recommended to the Duke to call each of the others into his presence and ask them what they were individually willing to do. The Duke adopted this plan, and it was wonderfully successful. Those who were the first invited made large offers, and their offers were immediately registered in form by the proper officers. Each one who followed was emulous of the example of those who had preceded him, and desirous of evincing as much zeal and generosity as they. Then, besides, the Duke received these vassals with so much condescension and urbanity, and treated them with so much consideration and respect as greatly to flatter their vanity, and raise them in their own estimation by exalting their ideas of the importance of the services which they could render in carrying so vast an enterprise to a successful result. In a word, the tide turned like a flood in favor of granting liberal supplies. The nobles and knights promised freely men money, ships, arms, provisions, everything, in short, that was required, and when the work of receiving and registering the offers was completed, and the officers summed up the aggregate amount William found to his extreme satisfaction that his wants were abundantly supplied. There was another very important point which William adopted immediate measures to secure, and that was obtaining the pope's approval of his intended expedition. The moral influence of having the Roman pontiff on his side would, he knew, be of incalculable advantage to him. He sent an embassage, accordingly, to Rome to lay the whole subject before his holiness, and to pray that the pope would declare that he was justly entitled to the English crown, and authorize him to proceed and take possession of it by force of arms. Lanfrank was the messenger whom he employed, the same Lanfrank who had been so successful some years before in the negotiations at Rome connected with the confirmation of William and Matilda's marriage. Lanfrank was equally successful now. The pope, after examining William's claims, pronounced them valid. He decided that William was entitled to the rank and honors of King of England. He caused a formal diploma to be made out to this effect. The diploma was elegantly executed, signed with the cross, according to the pontifical custom, and sealed with a round leadened seal. It was, in fact, very natural that the Roman authority should take a favorable view of William's enterprise, and feel an interest in its success, as it was undoubtedly for the interest of the church that William, rather than Harold, should reign over England, as the ascension of William would bring the English realm far more fully under the influence of the Roman church. William had always been very submissive to the pontifical authority, as was shown in his conduct in respect to the question of his marriage. He himself, and also Matilda, his wife, had always taken a warm interest in the welfare and prosperity of the Abbeys, the monasteries, the churches, and the other religious establishments of the time. Then, the very circumstance that he sent his ambassador to Rome to submit his claims to the Pontif's adjudication, while Harold did not do so, indicated a greater deference for the authority of the church, and made it probable that he would be a far more obedient and submissive son of the church. In his manner of ruling his realm, if he should succeed in gaining possession of it, then Harold his rival. The Pope and his counselors at Rome thought it was proper to take all these things into account in deciding between William and Harold, as they honestly believed, without doubt, that it was their first and highest duty to exalt and aggrandize, by every possible means, the spiritual authority of the sacred institution over which they were called to preside. The Pope and his cardinals, accordingly, espoused William's cause very warmly. In addition to the diploma which gave William formal authority to take possession of the English crown, the Pope sent him a banner and a ring. The banner was of costly and elegant workmanship. Its value, however, did not consist in its elegance or its cost, but in a solemn benediction which his holiness pronounced over it, by which it was rendered sacred and inviolable. The banner, thus blessed, was forwarded to William by Lanfrank with great care. It was accompanied by the ring. The ring was of gold and it contained a diamond of great value. The gold and the diamond both, however, served only as settings to preserve the honor something of far greater value than they. This choice treasure was a hair from the head of the Apostle Peter, a sacred relic of miraculous virtue and of inestimable value. When the edict with its leaden seal and the banner and the ring arrived in Normandy, they produced a great and universal excitement. To have bestowed upon the enterprise, thus emphatically, the solemn sanction of the great spiritual head of the church, to whom the great mass of the people looked up with an awe and a reverence, almost divine, was to seal indissolubly the rightfulness of the enterprise and to ensure its success. There was thenceforward no difficulty in procuring men or means. Everybody was eager to share in the glory and to obtain the rewards of an enterprise thus commended by an authority duly commissioned to express, in all cases, the judgment of heaven. Finding that the current was thus fairly settling in his favor, William sent proclamations to all the countries surrounding Normandy, inviting knights and soldiers and adventurers of every degree to join him in his projected enterprise. These proclamations awakened universal attention. Great number of adventurous men determined to enter William's service. Horses, arms, and accoutrements were everywhere in great demand. The invasion of England and the question of joining it were the universal topics of conversation. The roads were covered with knights and soldiers, some on horseback and alone, others in bands, large or small, all proceeding to Normandy to tender their services. William received them all and made liberal promises to bestow rewards and honors upon them in England in the event of his success. To some he offered pay and money, to others booty, to others office and power. Everyone had his price, even the priest and dignitaries of the church shared the general enthusiasm. One of them furnished a ship and twenty armed men under an agreement to be appointed bishop of a certain valuable English diocese when William should be established on his throne. While all these movements were going on in the interior of the country, all the seaports and towns along the coast of Normandy presented a very busy scene of naval preparation. Naval architects were employed in great numbers in building and fitting out vessels. Some were constructed and furnished for the transportation of men, others for conveying provisions and munitions of war, and lighters and boats were built for ascending the rivers and for aiding and landing troops upon shelving shores. Smiths and armors were occupied incessantly in manufacturing spears and swords and coats of mail while vast numbers of laboring men and beasts of burden were employed in conveying arms and materials to and from the manufactories to the ships and from one point of embarkation to another. As soon as William had put all these busy agencies thus in successful operation he considered that there was one more point which was necessary for him to secure before finally embarking and that was the cooperation and aid of the French king whose name at this time was Philip. In his character of Duke of Normandy the king of France was his liege lord and he was bound to act in some degree under an acknowledgment of his superior authority. In his new capacity that is as king of England or rather as heir to the English kingdom he was of course wholly independent of Philip and consequently not bound by any feudal obligation to look to him at all. He thought it most prudent however to attempt at least to conciliate Philip's favor and accordingly leaving his officers and his workmen to go on with the work of organizing his army and of building and equipping the fleet. He set off himself on an expedition to the court of the French king. He thought it safer to undertake this delicate mission himself rather than to entrust it to an ambassador or deputy. He found Philip at his palace of Saint Germain's which was situated at a short distance from Paris. The Duke assumed in his interview with the King a very respectful and differential heir and manor. Philip was a very young man though haughty in vain. William as very much his superior not only an age and experience but in talents and character and in personal renown. Still he approached the monarch with all the respectful observance due from a vassal to his sovereign, made known as plans and asked for Philip's approbation and aid. He was willing he said in case that aid was afforded him to uphold his kingdom of England as he had done the Duchy of Normandy as a dependency of the French crown. Philip seemed not at all disposed to look upon the project with favor. He asked William who was going to take care of his Duchy while he was running off after a kingdom. William replied at first that that was a subject which he did not think his neighbors need concern themselves about. Then thinking on reflection that a more respectful answer would be more politic under the circumstances of the case he added that he was providentially blessed with a prudent wife and loving subjects and that he thought he might safely leave his domestic affairs in their hands until he should return. Philip still opposed the plan. It was quixotic, he said, and dangerous. He strongly advised William to abandon the scheme and be content with his present possessions. Such desperate schemes of ambition as those he was contemplating would only involve him in ruin. Before absolutely deciding the case, however, Philip called a council of his great nobles and officers of state and laid William's proposals before them. The result of their deliberations was to confirm Philip in his first decision. They said that the rendering to William the aid which he desired would involve great expense and be attended with great danger. And as to William's promises to hold England as vassal of the King of France, they had no faith in the performance of them. It had been very difficult, they said, for many years for the Kings of France to maintain any effectual authority over the Dukes of Normandy. And when, once master of so distant and powerful a realm as England, all control over them would be sundered forever. Philip then gave William his final answer in accordance with these councils. The answer was received on William's part with strong feelings of disappointment and displeasure. William conducted the Duke to his retinue when the hour of departure arrived in order to soothe as air as possible his irritated feelings by dismissing him from his court with marks of his honorable consideration and regard. William, however, was not in a mood to be pleased. He told Philip on taking leave of him that he was losing the most powerful vassal that any Lord Sovereign ever had by the course which he had decided to pursue. I would have held the whole realm of England as part of your dominions, acknowledging you as Sovereign overall if you had consented to pay me your aid. But I will not do it since you refuse. I shall be bound to repay only those who assist me. William returned to Normandy where all the preparations for the expedition had been going on with great vigor during his absence and proceeded to make arrangements for the last great measure which was necessary to take previous to his departure. That was the regular constitution of a government to rule in Normandy while he should be gone. He determined to leave the supreme power in the hands of his wife Matilda, appointing at the same time a number of civil and military officers as a council of regency who were to assist her in deliberations by giving her information and advice and to manage under her direction the different departments of the government. Her title was Duchess Regent and she was installed into her office in a public and solemn manner at a great assembly of the realm. At the close of the ceremonies, after William had given Matilda his charge, he closed his address by adding, and do not let us fail to enjoy the benefits of your prayers and those of all the ladies of your court and the blessings of God may attend us and secure the success of our expedition. We're not necessarily to suppose, as we might at first be strongly inclined to do, that there was special hypocrisy and pretense in William's thus professing to lie on the protection of heaven in the personal and political dangers which he was about to incur. It is probable that he honestly believed that the inheritance of the English crown was his right and that being the case that a vigorous and effort to enforce his right was a solemn duty. In the present age of the world, now that there are so many countries in which the inheritance industry and love of order are so extensively diffused that the mass of the community are capable of organizing and administering a government themselves. Republicans are apt to look upon hereditary sovereigns as despots, ruling only for the purpose of promoting their own aggrandizement and the ends of an unholy and unselfish ambition. That there have been a great many such despots no one can on the other hand, there have been many others who have acted in a greater or less degree under the influence of principles of duty in their political career. They have honestly believed that the vast power with which in coming forward into life they had found themselves invested without, in most cases any agency of their own was a trust imposed upon them by divine providence which could not innocently be laid that on them devolved the protection of the communities over which they ruled from external hostility and the preservation of peace and order within and the promotion of the general industry and welfare as an imperious and solemn duty and they have devoted their lives to the performance of this duty with the usual mixture, it is true of ambition and selfishness but still after all as with much conscientiousness and honesty of the massive men in the humbler walks of life events in performing theirs William of Normandy appears to have been one of this latter class and in obeying the dictates of his ambition in seeking to gain possession of the English crown he no doubt considered himself as fulfilling the obligations of duty too however this may be he went on with his preparations in the most vigorous and prosperous manner the whole country were enthusiastic in the cause and their belief that the enterprise about to be undertaken had unquestionably secured the favor of heaven was confirmed by an extraordinary phenomenon which occurred just before the armament was ready to sail a comet appeared in the sky which as close observers declared had a double tail it was universally agreed that this portended that England and Normandy were about to be combined and to form a double kingdom which should exhibit to all mankind a wonderful spectacle of splendor End of Chapter 8 Chapter 9 of William the Conqueror This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Steve Foreman William the Conqueror by Jacob Abbott Chapter 9 Preparation for the Invasion The place for the final assembling of the fleet which was to convey the expedition across the channel was the mouth of a small river called the Dive flowing from the neighborhood of the castle of Philae's northward into the sea the grand gathering took place in the beginning of the month of September in the year 1066 this date, which marks the era of the Norman Conquest is one of the dates which students of history fix indelibly in the memory the gathering of the fleet in the estuary of the dive and the assembling of the troops on the beach along its shores formed a very grand and imposing spectacle the fleets of galleys ships, boats, and barges covering the surface of the water the long lines of tents under the cliffs on the land the horsemen, splendidly mounted and glittering with steel the groups of soldiers all busily engaged in transporting provisions and stores to and fro or making the preliminary arrangements for the embarkation the thousands of spectators who came and went incessantly and the Duke himself, gorgeously dressed and mounted on his war horse the guards and officers that attended him these and the various other elements of martial parade and display usually witnessed on such occasions conspired to produce a very gay and brilliant as well as a magnificent scene of course the assembling of so large a force of men and vessels and the various preparations for the embarkation consumed some time when at length all was ready which was early in September the equinoctial gales came and it was found impossible to leave the port there was in fact a continuance of heavy winds and seas and stormy skies for several weeks short intervals from time to time occurred when the clouds would break away and the sun appear but these intervals did not liberate the fleet from confinement for they were not long enough in duration to allow the sea to go down the surf continued to come roiling and thundering in upon the shore and over the sandbars at the mouth of the river making destruction the almost inevitable destiny of any ship which should undertake to brave its fury the vessels furled their sails and drew in their banners and rode at anchor presenting their heads doggedly into the storm the men on the shore sought shelter in their tents the spectators retired to their homes while the Duke and his officers watched the scutting clouds in the sky day after day with great and increasing anxiety in fact William had very serious cause for apprehension in respects to the effect which his long continued storm was to have on the success of his enterprise the delay was a very serious consideration in itself for the winter would soon be drawing near in one month more it would seem to be out of the question for such a vast armament to cross the channel at all then when men were embarking in such dark and hazardous undertakings as that in which William was now engaged their spirits and energy rise and sink in great fluctuations under the influence of very slight and inadequate causes and nothing has greater influence over them at such times than the aspect of the skies William found that the ardor and enthusiasm of his army were fast disappearing under the effects of chilling winds and driving rain the feelings of discontent and depression which the frowning expression of the heavens awakened in their minds were deepened and spread by the influence of sympathy the men had nothing to do during the long and dreary hours of the day but to anticipate hardships and dangers one another as they watched the clouds driving along the cliffs and the roiling of the surges in the offing with anticipations of shipwrecks battles and defeats and all the other gloomy forebodings which haunt the imagination of a discouraged and discontented soldier nor were these ideas of wrecks and destructions wholly imaginary although the body of the fleet remained in the river where it was sheltered from the winds yet there were many cases of single ships that were from time to time exposed to them these were detached vessels coming in late to the rendezvous or small squadrons sent out to some neighboring port under some necessity connected with the preparations or strong galleys whose commanders were bold than the rest were willing in cases not of absolute necessity to brave the danger many of these vessels were wrecked the fragments of them with the bodies of the drowned mariners were driven to the shore the ghastly spectacles presented by these dead bodies swollen and mangled and half buried in the sand as if the sea had been endeavouring to hide the mischief it had done shocked and terrified the spectators who saw them William gave orders to have all these bodies gathered up and interned secretly as fast as they were found still exaggerated rumours of the number and magnitude of these disasters were circulated in the camp and the discontent and apprehension grew every day more and more alarming William resolved that he must put to sea at the very first possible opportunity the favourable occasion was not long wanting the wind changed the storm appeared to cease a breeze sprang up from the south which headed back the surges from the French shore William gave the order to embark the tents were struck the baggage of the soldiers was sent on board the transport vessels the men themselves crowded into great flat bottom boats passed in masses to the ships from shore the spectators reappeared and covered the cliffs and promontories near to witness the final scene the sails were hoisted and the vast armament moved out upon the sea the appearance of a favourable change in the weather proved fallacious after all for the clouds and storm returned and after being driven in apprehension and danger about a hundred miles to the northeast along the coast the fleet was compelled to seek refuge again in harbor the port which received them was St. Valerie near Dieppe the Duke was greatly disappointed at being obliged thus again to take the land the attempt to advance had not been a labor wholly lost for as the French coast to hear trends to the northward they had been gradually narrowing the channel as they proceeded and were in fact so far on the way towards the English shores then there were besides some reasoning for touching here before the final departure to receive some last reinforcements and supplies William had also one more opportunity of communicating with his capital and with Matilda these delays disastrous as they seem to be and ominous of evil were nevertheless attended with one good effect of which however William at the time was not aware they led Harold in England to imagine that the enterprise was abandoned and so put him off his guard there were in those days as has already been remarked no regular and public modes of intercommunication by which intelligence of important movements and events was spread everywhere as now with promptness and certainty governments were obliged accordingly to rely for information in respect to what their enemies were doing on rumors or on reports of spies rumors had gone to England in August that William was meditating an invasion and Harold had made some extensive preparations to meet and oppose him but finding that he did not come that week after week of September passed away and no signs of an enemy appeared and gaining no certain information of the causes of the delay he concluded that the enterprise was abandoned or else perhaps postponed to the ensuing spring accordingly as the winter was coming on he deemed it best to commence his preparation for sending his troops to their winter quarters he disbanded some of them and sent others away distributing them in various castles and fortified towns where they would be sheltered from the rigors of the season and saved from the exposure and hardship of the camp and yet at the same time remain within reach of a summons in case any sudden emergency which might call for them they were soon summoned though not in the first instance to meet Harold as will presently appear while adopting these measures however which he thought the comfort and safety of his army required Harold did not relax his vigilance in watching as well as he could the designs and movements of his enemy he kept his secret agents on the southern coast ordering them to observe closely everything that transpired and to gather and send to him every item of intelligence which should find its way by any means across the channel of course William would do all in his power to intercept and cut all communication and he was at this time very much aided in these efforts by the prevalence of the storms which made it almost impossible for the fishing and trading vessels of the coast to venture out to sea or attempting to cross the channel the agents of Harold therefore on the southern coast of England found that they could obtain but very little information the length the king unwilling to remain any longer so entirely in the dark resolved on sending some messengers across the sea into Normandy itself to learn positively what the true state of the case might be messengers going thus secretly into the enemy's territory or into the enemy's camp became by so doing in martial law spies and incur if they are taken the penalty of death taking therefore is extremely hazardous and as the death which is inflicted in cases of detection is an ignominious one spies being hung not shot most men are very averse to encountering the danger still desperate characters are always to be found in camps and armies who are ready to undertake it on being promised very extraordinary pay Harold spies contrived to make their way across the channel probably at some point to the east of Normandy where the passage is narrow they then came along the shore disguised as peasants of the country and they arrived at Saint Valerie while Williams fleets were there here they began to make their observations scrutinizing everything with close attention and care and yet studiously endeavouring to conceal their interest in what they saw not withstanding all their vigilance however they were discovered proved to be spies and taken before William to receive their sentence instead of condemning them to death which they undoubtedly supposed would be their inevitable fate William ordered them to be set at liberty go back he said to King Harold and tell him he might have saved himself the expense of sending spies into Normandy to learn what I am preparing for him to know by other means much sooner in fact than he imagines go and tell him from me that he may put himself if he pleases in the safest place he can find in all his dominions and if he does not find my hand upon him before the year is out he never need fear me again as long as he lives nor was this expression of confidence in the success of the measures which he was taking a mere empty boast William knew the power of Harold and he knew his own the enterprise in which he had embarked was not a rash adventure it was a cool, deliberate, well considered plan it appeared doubtful and dangerous in the eyes of mankind for to mere superficial observers it seemed simply an aggressive war waged by a Duke of Normandy the ruler of a comparatively small and insignificant province against a king of England the monarch of one of the greatest and most powerful realms in the world William on the other hand regarded it as an effort on the part of the rightful heir to a throne to dispossess a new surfer he felt confident of having the sympathy and cooperation of a great part of the community even in England the moment he could show them that he was able to maintain his rights and that he could show them that by a very decisive demonstration was evident visibly before him in the vast fleet which he was riding at anchor in the harbor and in the long lines of tents filled with soldiery which covered the land on one occasion when some of his officers were expressing apprehensions of Harold's power and their fears and respect to their being able successfully to cope with it William replied that the more formidable Harold's powers should prove to be that he should be pleased as the glory would be all the greater for them in having overcome it I have no objection said he that you should entertain exalted ideas of his strength though I wonder a little that you do not better appreciate your own I need be under no concern lest he at such a distance should learn too much by his spies about the force which I am bringing against him who are so near seem to know so little about it but do not give yourselves any concern trust to the justice of your cause and to my foresight perform your parts like men and you will find that the result which I feel sure of and you hope for will certainly be attained the storm at length entirely cleared away and the army and the fleet commenced their preparations for the final departure in the midst of this closing scene the attention of all the vast crowds assembled on board the ship and on the shores was one morning attracted by a beautiful ship which came sailing into the harbor it proved to be a large and splendid vessel which the Duchess Matilda had built at her own expense and was now bringing in to offer to her husband as her parting gift she was herself on board with her officers in attendance and to bid him farewell her arrival of course under such circumstances produced universal excitement and enthusiasm the ships in harbor and the shores resounded with acclamations as the new arrival came gallantly in Matilda's vessel was finally built and splendidly decorated the sails were of different colors which gave it a very gay appearance upon them were painted in various places the three lions which was the device of the Norman ensign at the bow of the ship was an effigy or figurehead representing William and Matilda's second son shooting with a bow this was the accomplishment which of all others his father took most interest in seeing his little son acquire the arrow was drawn nearly to its head indicating great strength in the little arms which were guiding it and it was just ready to fly the name of this vessel was the Mira William made it his flagship he hoisted upon it the consecrated banner which had been sent to him from Rome and went on board accompanied by his officers and guards and with great ceremony and parade at length the squadron was ready to put to sea at a given signal the sails were hoisted and the whole fleet began to move to the harbor there were four hundred ships of large size if we may believe the chronicles of the time and more than a thousand transports the decks of all these vessels were covered with men banners were streaming from every mast and spar and every salient point on the shore was crowded with spectators the sea was calm the air serene and the mighty cloud of canvas which whitened the surface of the water over the gentle swell of the waves forming a spectacle which as a picture merely for the eye was magnificent and grand and when regarded in connection with the vast results of to the human race which were to flow from the success of the enterprise must have been considered sublime the splendidly decorated ship which Matilda had presented to her husband proved itself on trial to be something more than a mere toy it led the van at the commencement of course and as all eyes watched its progress it soon became evident that it was slowly gaining upon the rest of the squadron so as continually to increase its distance from those that were following it William pleased with the success of its performance ordered the sailing master to keep on without regard to those who were behind and thus it happened that when the night came on the fleet was at a very considerable distance in rear of the flagship of course under these circumstances the fleet disappeared from sight when the sun went down but all expected that it would come into view again in the morning when the morning came however to the surprise and disappointment of everyone on board the flagship no signs of the fleet were to be seen the seamen and the officers on the deck gazed long and intently into the southern horizon as the increasing light of the morning brought it gradually into view but there was not a speck to break it smooth an even line they felt anxious and uneasy but William seemed to experience no concern he ordered the sails to be furled and then sent a man to the mast head to look out there nothing was to be seen William still apparently unconcerned ordered breakfast to be prepared in a very sumptuous manner with wine and other delicacies that the minds of all on board might be cheered by the exhilarating influence of a feast at length the lookout was sent to the mast head again what do you see now? said William I see said the man gazing very intently all the while towards the south four very small specks just on the horizon the intense interest which this announcement awakened on the deck was soon at the same time heightened and relieved by the cry I can see more and more they are the ships yes the whole squadron is coming into view the advancing fleet soon came up with the mirror when the latter spread her sails again and all moved slowly on together toward the coast of England the ships had directed their course so much to the eastward that when they made the land far from the straits of Dover as they drew near to the English shore they watched very narrowly for the appearance of Harold's cruisers which they naturally expected would have been stationed at various points to guard the coast but none were to be seen there had been such cruisers and there still were such off other harbors but it happened very fortunately for William that those which had been stationed to guard this part of the island were withdrawn a few days before on account of their provisions being exhausted thus when William's fleet arrived there was no enemy to oppose their landing there was a large and open bay called the bay of pavince which lay smiling before them extending its arms as if inviting them in the fleet advanced to within the proper distance from the land and there the seamen cast their anchors and all began to prepare for the work of disembarkation a strong body of soldiers is of course landed first on such occasions in this instance the archers William's favorite corps were selected to take the lead William accompanied them in his eagerness to get to the shore as he leaped from the boat his foot slipped and he fell the officers and men around him would have considered this an evil omen the presence of mind enough to extend his arms and grasp the ground pretending that his frustration was designed and saying at the same time thus I seize this land from this moment it is mine as he arose one of his officers ran to a neighboring hut which stood nearby upon the shore and breaking off a little of its thatch carried it to William and putting it in his hand said that he thus gave him sizing of his new possession this was a customary form in those times of putting a new owner into possession of lands which he had purchased or acquired in any other way the new proprietor would repair to the ground where the party whose province it was to deliver the property would detach something from it such as a piece of turf from the bank or a little of the thatch from a cottage and offering it to him would say thus I deliver the sizing that is possession of this land this ceremony was necessary to complete the conveyance of the estate the soldiers as soon as they were landed began immediately to form an encampment and to make such military arrangements as were necessary to guard against an attack or a sudden appearance of an enemy while this was going on they continued to pass to and fro accomplishing as fast as possible the work of disembarkation in addition to those regularly attached to the army there was a vast company of workmen of all kinds engineers, pioneers, carpenters, masons and laborers to be landed and there were three towers or rather forts built of timber which had been framed and fashioned in Normandy ready to be put up on arriving these now had to be landed piece by piece on the strand these forts were to be erected as soon as the army should have chosen a position for a permanent encampment and were intended as a means of protection for the provisions and stores the circumstance shows that the plan of transporting buildings ready made across the seas had not been invented anew by our immigrants to California while these operations were going on William dispatched small squadrons of horses reconordering parteries to explore the country around to see if there were any indications that Harold was near these parties returned one after another after having gone some miles into the country in all directions and reported that there were no signs of an enemy to be seen things were now getting settled too in the camp and William gave direction that the army should kindle their fires for the night and prepared to eat their suppers his own supper or dinner as perhaps it might be called was also served which he partook with his officers in his own tent his mind was in a state of great contentment and satisfaction at the successful accomplishment of the landing and at finding himself thus safely established at the head of a vast force within the realm of England every circumstance of the transit had been favorable excepting one and that was that two of the ships belonging to the fleet were missing William inquired at supper if any tidings of them had been received they told him in reply that the missing vessels had been heard from they had in some way or another been run upon the rocks and lost there was a certain astrologer who had made a great parade before the expedition left Normandy of predicting its results he was drawn by consulting the stars that William would be successful and would meet with no opposition from Harold this astrologer had been on board one of the missing ships and was drowned William remarked on receiving this information what an idiot a man must be to think that he can predict by means of the stars the future fate of others when it is so plain that he cannot foresee his own it is said that William's dinner on this occasion was served on a large stone instead of a table this stone still remains on the spot and is called the Conqueror's Stone to this day the next day after the landing the army was put in motion and advanced along the coast towards the eastward there was no armed enemy to contend against them there or to oppose their march the people of the country though which the army moved far from attempting to resist them were filled with terror and dismay this terror was heightened in fact by some excesses of which some parties of the soldiers were guilty the inhabitants of the hamlets and villages overwhelmed with consternation at the sudden descent upon their shores of such a vast horde of wild and desperate foreigners fled in all directions some made their escape into the interior others taking with them members of their households and such valuables as they could carry sought refuge in monasteries and churches supposing that such sanctuaries as those not even soldiers unless they were pagans would dare to violate others still attempted to conceal themselves in thickets and feigns till the vast throng which was sweeping onward like a tornado should have passed though William afterwards always against a decided disposition to protect the peaceful inhabitants of the country from all aggressions on the part of his troops he had no time to attend to that subject now he was intent on pressing forward to a place of safety William reached at length a position which seemed to him suitable for a permanent encampment it was an elevated land near the sea to the westward of it was a valley formed by a sort of recess opened in the range cliffs which here formed the shore of England in the bottom of this valley down upon the beach was a small town then of no great consequence or power but whose name which was Hastings has since been immortalized by the battle which was fought in its vicinity a few days after William's arrival the position which William selected for his encampment was on a high land in the vicinity of the town the lines of the encampment were marked out and the forts or castles which had been brought from Normandy were set within the enclosures vast multitudes of laborers were soon at work throwing up embankments and building redoubts and bastions while others were transporting the arms the provisions and the munitions of war and storing them in security within the lines the encampment was soon completed and the long line of tents were set up in streets and squares within it by the time however that the work was done some of William's agents and spies came into the camp from the north saying that in four days Harold would be upon him at the head of a hundred thousand men End of chapter 9 The Reader will doubtless recollect that the tidings which William first recede for the accession of King Harold were brought to him by Tostig Harold's brother on the day when he was trying his bow and arrows in the park at ruin Tostig was his brother's most inveterate foe he had been in the camp for a long time he had been in the camp for a long time he had been in the camp for a long time he had been in the camp for a long time inveterate foe he had been during the reign of Edward a great chieftain ruling over the north of England the city of York was then his capital he had been expelled from these his dominions and had quarrelled with his brother Harold in respect to his right to be restored to them in the course of this quarrel he was driven from the country altogether and went to the continent burning with rage and resentment against his brother when he came to inform William of Harold's deception his subject was not merely to arouse William to action he wished to act himself he told William that he himself had more influence in England still than his brother and that if William would supply him with a small fleet in a moderate number of men he would make a descent upon the coast and show what he could do William acceded to his proposal and furnished him with the force that she required to sail William had not apparently much confidence in the power of Tostig to produce any great effect but his efforts, he thought might cause some alarm in England and occasion sudden and fatiguing marches to the troops and thus distract and weaken King Harold's forces William would not therefore accompany Tostig himself but dismissing him with such force as he could readily raise and so sudden a call he remained himself at Normandy and commenced and earnest his own grand preparations as is described in the last chapter Tostig did not think it prudent to attempt a landing on English shores until he had obtained some accession to the force which William had given him he accordingly passed through the Straits of Dover and then turned northward he sailed along the eastern shores of the German ocean in search of allies he came at length to Norway he entered into negotiations there with the Norwegian king whose name too was Harold this northern Harold was a wild and adventurous soldier and sailor a sort of sea king who had spent a considerable portion of his life in marauding excursions upon the seas he readily entered into Tostig's views an arrangement was soon concluded and Tostig set sail again to cross the German ocean towards the British shores while Harold promised to collect and equip his own fleet as soon as possible and follow him all this took place in early September so that at the same time that William's threatened invasion was gathering strength and menacing Harold's southern frontier a cloud equally dark and gloomy and quite as threatening in its aspect was rising and swelling in the north while King Harold himself though full of vague and easiness and alarm could gain no certain information in respect to either of these dangers the Norwegian fleet assembled at the port appointed for the rendezvous of it but as the season was advanced and the weather stormy the soldiers there, like William's soldiers on the coast of France were afraid to put to sea some of them had dreams which they considered as bad omens and so much superstitious importance was attached to such ideas in those times that these dreams were gravely recorded by the writers of the ancient chronicles and have come down to us as part of the regular and sober history of the times one soldier dreamed that the expedition had sailed and landed on the English coast and that there the English army came out to meet them before the front of the army rode a woman of gigantic stature mounted on a wolf the wolf had in his jaws a human body dripping with blood she was engaged in devouring as he came along the woman gave the wolf another victim after he devoured the first another of these ominous dreams was the following just as the fleet was about setting sail the dreamers saw a crowd of ravenous vultures and birds of prey come in a light everywhere upon the sails and riggings of the ship as if they were going to accompany the expedition upon the summit of a rock near the shore the figure of a female with a stern ferocious countenance and a drawn sword in her hand she was busy counting the ships pointing at them as she counted with her sword she seemed a sort of fiend of destruction and she called out the birds to encourage them to go go said she without fear we shall have abundance of prey I am going to it is obvious that these dreams might as easily have been interpreted to portend death and destruction to the English foes as to the dreamers themselves the soldiers were however inclined in the state of mind which is the season of the year the threatening aspect of the skies and the certain dangers of their distant expedition produced to apply the gloomy predictions which they imagined these dreams expressed to themselves their chief however was of too desperate and determined to character to pay any regard to such influences he set sail his armament crossed the Germans sea and safety and joined Tostig on the coast of Scotland the combined fleet moved slowly southward along the shore watching for an opportunity to land they reached at length the town of Scarborough and landed to attack it the inhabitants retired within the walls shut the gates and bid the invaders defiance the town was situated under a hill which rose in steep aclivity upon one side the story is that the Norwegians went upon this hill where they piled up an enormous heap of trunks and branches of trees where the interstices filled with stubble dried bark and roots and other such combustibles and then set in the whole mass on fire they rolled it down into the town vast ball of fire roaring and crackling more and more by the fanning of its flames in the wind as it bounded along the intelligent reader will of course pause and hesitate in considering how far to credit such a story it is obviously impossible that any mere pile however closely packed could be made to roll but it is perhaps not absolutely impossible the trunks of trees might be framed together or fastened with wet thongs or iron chains after being made in the form of a rude cylinder or ball and filled with combustibles within so as to retain its integrity in such a descent the account states that this strange method of bombardment was successful the town was set in fire the people surrendered Tostig and the Norwegians plundered it and then, embarking again in their ships they continued their voyage the intelligence of this descent upon its northern coasts reached Harold in London towards the close of September just as he was withdrawing his forces from the southern frontier as was related in the last chapter under the idea that the Norman invasion would probably be postponed until the spring so that instead of sending his troops into their winter quarters he had to concentrate them again with all dispatch and marched at the head of them to the north to protect this new and unexpected danger while King Harold was thus advancing to meet them Tostig and his Norwegian allies entered the river Humber their object was to reach the city of York which had been Tostig's former capital and was situated near the river Ouse a branch of the Humber they accordingly ascended the Humber to the mouth of the Ouse and then up the latter river to a suitable point of debarkation not far from York here they landed and formed a great encampment from this encampment they advanced to the siege of the city the inhabitants made some resistance at first but finding that their cause was hopeless they offered to surrender and a treaty of surrender was finally concluded this negotiation was closed towards the evening of the day and Tostig and his Confederate forces were to be admitted on the morrow they therefore decided immediately that their prize was secure withdrew to their encampment for the night and left the city to its repose it so happened that King Harold arrived that very night coming to the rescue of the city he expected to have found an army of besiegers around the walls but instead of that there was nothing to intercept his progress up to the very gates of the city the inhabitants opened the gates to receive him and the encampment which was marching under his command passed in while Tostig and his Norwegian allies were sleeping quietly in their camp wholly unconscious of the great change which had thus taken place in the situation of their affairs the next morning Tostig drew out a large portion of the army and formed them in a ray for the purpose of advancing to take possession of the city although it was September and the weather had been cold and stormy the sun came out bright and the air was calm giving promise of a warm day and as the movement into the city was to be a peaceful one a procession as it were and not a hostile march the men were ordered to leave their coats of mail and all the heavy armour in camp that they might march the more unencumbered while they were advancing in this unconcerned and almost defenceless condition they saw before them on the road leading to the city a cloud of dust arising it was a strong body of King Harold's troops coming out to attack them at first Tostig and the Norwegians were completely lost and bewildered at the appearance of so unexpected a spectacle very soon they could see weapons glittering here and there and banners flying a cry of the enemy the enemy arose and passed along their ranks producing universal alarm Tostig and the Norwegian Harold halted their men and marshaled them hastily in battle-array the English Harold did the same when he had drawn up near to the front of the enemy both parties then paused and stood surveying one another presently there was seen advancing from the English side a squadron of twenty horsemen spurntedly armed and bearing a flag of truce they approached within a short distance of the Norwegian lines when a herald who was among them called aloud for Tostig Tostig came forward in answer to the summons the herald then proclaimed to Tostig that his brother did not wish to contend with him but desired on the contrary that they should live together in harmony he offered him peace therefore if he would lay down his arms and he promised to restore him his former possessions and honors Tostig seemed very much inclined to receive this proposition favorably he paused and hesitated at length he asked the messenger what terms King Harold would make with his friend and ally the Norwegian herald he shall have replied the messenger seven feet of English ground for a grave he shall have little more than that for he's taller than common men then replied Tostig tell my brother to prepare for battle it shall never be said that I abandoned or betrayed my ally and friend the troop returned with Tostig's answer to Harold's lines and the battle almost immediately began of course the most eager and inveterate hostility of the English army would be directed against the Norwegians and their king whom they considered as foreign intruders without any excuse or pretext for their aggression it accordingly happened that very soon after the commencement of their conflict Harold to the Norwegian fell mortally wounded by an arrow in his throat the English king then made new proposals to Tostig to cease the combat and come to some terms of accommodation but in the meantime Tostig had become himself incensed and withlistened to no overtures of peace he continued the combat until he was himself killed the remaining combatants in his army had now no longer any motive for resistance Harold offered them a free passage to their ships they might return home in peace if they would lay down their arms they accepted the offer retired and boarded their ships and set sail Harold then having in the meantime heard of Williams landing on the southern coast set out on his return to the southward to meet the more formidable enemy that menaced him there his army, though victorious was weakened by the fatigues of the march and by the losses suffered in the battle Harold himself had been wounded though not so severely as to prevent his continuing to exercise the command he pressed on toward the south with great energy sending messages on every side into the surrounding country on his line of march calling upon the chieftains to arm themselves and their followers to join him with all possible dispatch and join him he hoped to advance so rapidly to the southern coast as to surprise William before he should fully entrenched himself in his camp and without his being aware of his enemy's approach but William, in order to guard effectually against surprise had sent out small, reconnoitering parties of horsemen on all the roads leading northward that they might bring him in intelligence of the first approach of the enemy Harold's advance guard met these parties and saw them as they drove rapidly back to the camp to give the alarm thus the hope of surprising William was disappointed Harold found too by his spies as he drew near to his utter dismay that William's forces were four times as numerous as his own it would of course be madness for him to think of attacking an enemy in his entrenchments with such an inferior force the only alternative left him was either to retreat or else to take some strong position and fortify himself there in the hope of being able to resist the invaders and arrest their advance though he was not strong enough to attack them some of his councillors advised him not to hazard a battle at all but to fall back toward London carrying with him or destroying everything which could afford sustenance to William's army from the whole breadth of the land this would soon they said reduce William's army to great distress for want of food since it would be impossible for him to transport supplies across the channel for so vast a multitude besides they said this plan would compel William and the extremity to which he would be reduced to make so many predatory excursions among the more distant villages and towns as would exasperate the inhabitants and induce them to join Harold's army in great numbers to repel the invasion Harold listened to these councillors but said, after consideration that he could never adopt such a plan he could not be so derelict to his duty as to lay waste to a country which he was under obligations to protect and save or compel his people to come to his aid by exposing them, designedly to the excesses and cruelties of so ferocious an enemy Harold determined therefore on giving William battle it was not necessary however for him to attack the invader he perceived it once that if he should take a strong position and fortify himself in it William must necessarily attack him since a foreign army just landed in the country could not long remain inactive on the shore Harold accordingly chose a position six or seven miles from William's camp and fortified himself strongly there of course neither army was in sight of the other or knew the numbers disposition or plans of the enemy the country between them was so far as the inhabitants were concerned a scene of consternation and terror no one knew at what point the two vast clouds of danger and destruction which were hovering near them would meet or over what regions the terrible storm which was to burst forth when the hour of that meeting should come would sweep in his destructive fury the inhabitants therefore were everywhere flying in dismay conveying away the aged and the helpless by any means which came most readily to hand taking with them to such treasures as they could carry and hiding in rude and uncertain places of concealment those which they were compelled to leave behind the region thus which lay between the two encampments was rapidly becoming a solitude and a desolation a cross which no communication was made and no tidings passed to give the armies at the encampments intelligence of each other Harold had two brothers among the officers of his army Girth and Leofwen their conduct toward the king seems to have been of a more fraternal character than that of Tostig who had acted the part of a rebel and an enemy Girth and Leofwen on the contrary adhered to his cause and as the hour of danger the great crisis which was to decide their fate drew nigh they kept close to his side and evinced a truly fraternal solicitude for his safety it was they specially who had recommended to Harold to fall back on London and not to risk his life and the fate of his kingdom on the uncertain event of a battle as soon as Harold had completed his encampment he expressed a desire to Girth to ride across the intermediate country and take a view of William's lines such an undertaking was less dangerous than it would have been at the present day for now such a reconnoitering party would be discovered from the enemy's encampment at a great distance by means of spyglasses at a twenty four pound shot or a shell would be sent from a battery to blow the party to pieces or drive them away the only danger then was of being pursued by a detachment of horsemen from the camp or surrounded by an ambuscade to guard against these dangers Harold and Girth took the most powerful and fleetiest horses in the camp and they called out a small but strong guard of well selected men to escort them thus provided and attended they rode over to the enemy's lines and advanced so near that from a small eminence to which they ascended they could survey the whole scene of William's encampment the palisades and embankments with which it was guarded which extended for miles the long lines of tents within the first multitude of soldiers the knights and officers riding two and fro glittering with steel and the grand pavilion of the Duke himself with the consecrated banner of the cross floating above it Harold was very much impressed with the grandeur of the spectacle after casing on this scene for some time in silence Harold said to Girth that perhaps after all the policy of falling back would have been the wisest for them to adopt rather than to risk a battle was so overwhelming a force as they saw before them he did not know he added but that it would be best for them to change their plan and adopt that policy now Girth said that it was too late they had taken their stand and now for them to break up their encampment would be considered a retreat and not a manoeuvre and would discourage and dishearten the whole realm after surveying thus as long as they desire to do so the situation and extent of William's encampment Harold's party returned to their own lines still determined to make a stand there against the invaders but feeling great doubt and despondency in respect to the result Harold sent over too in the course of the day some spies the men whom he employed for this purpose were Normans by birth and they could speak the French language there were many Normans in England who had come over in King Edward's time these Norman spies could of course disguise themselves and mingle without attracting attention among the thousands of workmen and camp followers they were going and coming continually around the grounds which William's army occupied they did this so effectively that they penetrated within the encampment without difficulty examined everything and in due time returned to Harold with their report they gave a formidable account of the numbers and condition of William's troops there was a large corps of bowmen in the army who had adopted a fashion of being shaven and shorn in such a manner that the spies mistook them for priests they told Harold accordingly on their return that there were more priests in William's camp than the worst soldiers in all his army during this eventful day William too sent a body of horsemen across the country which separated the two encampments though his emissaries were not spies but ambassadors with propositions for peace William had no wish to fight a battle if what he considered as rightfully his kingdom could be delivered to him without it and he determined to make one final effort to obtain a peaceable surrender of it before coming to the dreadful resort of an appeal to arms he accordingly sent his embassy with three propositions to make to the English king the principal messenger in this company was a monk whose name was Marigot he rode with a proper escort and a flag of truce to Harold's lines the propositions were these by accepting either of which the monk said that Harold might avoid a battle one, that Harold should surrender the kingdom to William as he had solemnly sworn to do over the sacred relics in Normandy two, that they should both agree to refer the whole subject of controversy between them to the pope and abide by his decision three, that they should settle the dispute by single combat the two claimants to the crown to fight a duel on the plane in presence of their respective armies it is obvious that Harold could not accept either of these propositions the first was to give up the whole point at issue as for the second the pope had already prejudiced the case and if it were to be referred to him there could be no doubt that he would simply reaffirm his former decision and in respect to single combat the disadvantage on Harold's part would be as great in such a contest as it would be in the proposed arbitration he was himself a man of comparatively slender form and of little bodily strength William on the other hand was distinguished for his size and for his extraordinary muscular energy in a modern combat with firearms these personal advantages would be of no avail but in those days when the weapons were battle axes lances and swords they were almost decisive of the result Harold therefore declined all William's propositions and the monk returned William seems not to have been wholly discouraged by this failure of his first attempt at negotiation for he sent his embassage a second time to make one more proposal it was that if Harold would consent to acknowledge William as king of England William would assign the whole territory to him and to his brother girth to holds, provinces under William's general sway under this arrangement William would himself return to Normandy making the city of Ruin which was his capital there the capital of the whole united realm to this proposal Harold replied that he could not on any terms give up his rights as sovereign of England he therefore declined this proposal also he however now made a proposition in his turn he was willing he said to compromise the dispute so far as it could be done by the payment of money if William would abandon his invasion and return to Normandy giving up his claims to the English crown he would pay him he said any sum of money that he would name William could not accept this proposal he was as he believed the true and rightful heir to the throne of England and there was a point of honour involved as well as a dictate of ambition to be obeyed in insisting on the claim in the meantime the day had passed while these fruitless negotiations had been pending night was coming on William's officers and councillors began to be uneasy at the delay they said that every hour new reinforcements were coming into Harold's camp while they themselves were gaining no advantage and consequently the longer the battle was delayed the less was the certainty of victory so William promised them that he would attack Harold in his camp the very next morning as the time for the great final struggle drew near Harold's mind was oppressed more and more with a sense of anxiety and with foreboding fears his brothers too were ill at ease their solicitude was increased by the recollection of Harold's oath and of the awful sanctions which they feared the sacred relics might have invested it they were not sure that their brothers' excuse for setting it aside would save him from the guilt and curse of perjury in the sight of heaven so they proposed on the eve of the battle that Harold himself should retire and leave them to conduct the defence we cannot deny they said that you did take the oath and not to withstand in the circumstances which seem to absolve you from the obligation and that you did take the oath to absolve you from the obligation it is best to avoid, if possible the open violation of it it will be better on the whole for you to leave the army and go to London you can aid very effectively in the defence of the kingdom by raising reinforcements there we will stay and encounter the actual battle heaven cannot be displeased with us for so doing for we shall only be discharging the duty incumbent on all of defending their native land from foreign invasion Harold would not consent to adopt this plan he could not retire himself he said at the hour of approaching danger and leave his brothers and his friends exposed when it was his crown for which they were contending such were the circumstances of the two armies on the evening before the battle and of course in such a state of things the tendency of the minds of men would be in Harold's camp to gloom in despondency and in Williams to confidence and exaltation Harold undertook, as men in his circumstances often do to lighten the load which weighed upon his own heart and oppress the spirits of his men by feasting and wine he ordered a plentiful sapper to be served and supplied his soldiers with abundance of drink and it is said that his whole camp exhibited during the whole night one wide spread scene of carousing and revelry the troops being gathered everywhere in groups around their campfires some half stupefied others quarrelling and others still singing national songs and dancing with wild excitement according to the various effects produced upon different constitutions by the intoxicating influence of beer and wine in a Williams camp there were witnessed very different scenes there were a great many monks in ecclesiastics in the train of his army and on the night before the battle they spent the time in saying masses reading litanies and prayers chanting anthems and another similar acts of worship assisted by the soldiers who gathered in great congregations for this wild worship in the open spaces among the tents and around the campfires at length they all retired to rest feeling an additional sense of safety in respect to the work of the morrow they were having as they supposed entitled themselves by their piety to the protection of heaven in the morning too in Williams camp the first thing done was to convene the army for a grand celebration of mass it is a curious illustration of the mingling of the religious or perhaps we ought rather to say the superstitious sentiment of the times with the spirit of war that the bishop who officiated in the solemn service of the mass wore a coat of mail under his pontificial attire and an attendant stood by his side while he was offering his prayers with a steel pointed spear in his hand ready for the martial prelate to assume as soon as the service should be ended accordingly when the religious duty was performed the bishop through of his surplus took his spear and mounting his white charger which was also all saddled and bridled beside him he headed a brigade of horse and rode on to the assault of the enemy William himself mounted a very magnificent war-horse from Spain a present which he had formally received from one of his wealthy barons the name of the horse was Bayard for William's neck was suspended some of the most sacred of the relics over which Harold had taken his false oath he imagined that there would be some sort of charm in them to protect his life and to make the judgment of heaven was sure against the perjurer the standard which the pope had blessed was borne by his side by a young standard bearer who was very proud of the honour an older soldier however on whom the care of this standard officially devolved had asked to be excused from carrying it he wished, he said, to do his work that day with the sword while making these preliminary arrangements for going into battle William, with the party around him stood upon a gentle eminence in the middle of the camp and in sight of the whole army everyone was struck with admiration at the splendid figure which their commander made his large and well-formed limbs covered with steel and his horse, whose form was as noble as that of his master prancing restlessly as if impatient for the battle to begin when all were ready the army advanced gaily and joyously to attack the English line but the gaity and joyousness of the scene soon disappeared as corps after corps got fairly engaged in the awful work of the day for ten long hours they reigned over the whole field for ten long hours they reigned over the whole field one widespread scene of havoc and death every soul among all those countless thousands delivered up to the supreme dominion of the most dreadful passions excited to the perfect frenzy of hatred, rage and revenge and all either mercilessly killing others or dying themselves in agony and despair when night came the Normans were everywhere victorious they were in full possession of the field and they were triumphantly to and throw through Harold's camp leaping their horses over the bodies of the dead and dying which covered the ground those are King Harold's followers that had escaped the slaughter of the day fled in hopeless confusion toward the north with the flying masses strewed to the roads for miles with the bodies of men who sank down on the way spent with wounds or exhausted by fatigue in the morning William marshalled his men on the field and called over the names of the officers and men as they had been registered in Normandy for the purpose of ascertaining who were killed while this melancholy ceremony was going on two monks came in sent from the remains of the English army and saying that King Harold was missing and that it was rumoured that he had been slain if so his body must be lying somewhere they said upon the field and they wished for permission to make search for it the permission was granted with the aid of some soldiers they began to explore the ground turning over and examining every lifeless form which by the dress of the armour might seem to be possibly the King's this search was for a long time vain the ghastly faces of the dead were so mutated and changed that nobody could be identified at length however a woman who had been Harold's family and knew his person more intimately than they found and recognised the body and the monks and the soldiers carried it away the battle of Hastings sealed and settled the controversy in respect to the English crown it is true that the adherents of Harold and also those of Edgar Attling made afterwards various efforts to rally their forces and recover the kingdom but in vain William advanced to London fought to fight himself there and made excursions from that city as a centre until he reduced the island to his sway he was crowned at length at Westminster Abbey a great pomp and parade he sent for Matilda to come and join him and instated her in his palace as Queen of England he confiscated the property of all the English nobles who had fought against him and divided it among the Norman chieftains who had aided him in the invasion he made various excursions to and from Normandy himself being received everywhere throughout his dominions on both sides of the channel with the most distinguished honours in a word he became in the course of a few years after he landed one of the greatest and most powerful potentates on the globe how far all his riches and grandeur were from making him happy will appear in the following chapter