Now this was the manoeuvre of G.o.dwin"s array. His vessels having pa.s.sed London Bridge, had rested awhile on the banks of the Southward suburb (Suth-weorde)--since called Southwark--and the King"s ships lay to the north; but the fleet of the Earl"s, after a brief halt, veered majestically round, and coming close to the palace of Westminster, inclined northward, as if to hem the King"s ships. Meanwhile the land forces drew up close to the Strand, almost within bow-shot of the King"s troops, that kept the ground inland; thus Vebba saw before him, so near as scarcely to be distinguished from each other, on the river the rival fleets, on the sh.o.r.e the rival armaments.
High above all the vessels towered the majestic bark, or aesca, that had borne Harold from the Irish sh.o.r.es. Its fashion was that of the ancient sea-kings, to one of whom it had belonged. Its curved and mighty prow, richly gilded, stood out far above the waves: the prow, the head of the sea-snake; the stern its spire; head and spire alike glittering in the sun.
The boat drew up to the lofty side of the vessel, a ladder was lowered, the nuncius ascended lightly and stood on deck. At the farther end grouped the sailors, few in number, and at respectful distance from the Earl and his sons.
G.o.dwin himself was but half armed. His head was bare, nor had he other weapon of offence than the gilt battle-axe of the Danes--weapon as much of office as of war; but his broad breast was covered with the ring mail of the time. His stature was lower than that of any of his sons; nor did his form exhibit greater physical strength than that of a man, well shaped, robust, and deep of chest, who still preserved in age the pith and sinew of mature manhood. Neither, indeed, did legend or fame ascribe to that eminent personage those romantic achievements, those feats of purely animal prowess, which distinguished his rival, Siward. Brave he was, but brave as a leader; those faculties in which he appears to have excelled all his contemporaries, were more a.n.a.logous to the requisites of success in civilised times, than those which won renown of old. And perhaps England was the only country then in Europe which could have given to those faculties their fitting career. He possessed essentially the arts of party; he knew how to deal with vast ma.s.ses of mankind; he could carry along with his interests the fervid heart of the mult.i.tude; he had in the highest degree that gift, useless in most other lands--in all lands where popular a.s.semblies do not exist--the gift of popular eloquence. Ages elapsed, after the Norman conquest, ere eloquence again became a power in England. [80]
But like all men renowned for eloquence, he went with the popular feeling of his times; he embodied its pa.s.sions, its prejudices--but also that keen sense of self-interest, which is the invariable characteristic of a mult.i.tude. He was the sense of the commonalty carried to its highest degree. Whatever the faults, it may be the crimes, of a career singularly prosperous and splendid, amidst events the darkest and most terrible,--shining with a steady light across the thunder-clouds,--he was never accused of cruelty or outrage to the ma.s.s of the people. English, emphatically, the English deemed him; and this not the less that in his youth he had sided with Canute, and owed his fortunes to that king; for so intermixed were Danes and Saxons in England, that the agreement which had given to Canute one half the kingdom had been received with general applause; and the earlier severities of that great prince had been so redeemed in his later years by wisdom and mildness--so, even in the worst period of his reign, relieved by extraordinary personal affability, and so lost now in men"s memories by pride in his power and fame,--that Canute had left behind him a beloved and honoured name [81], and G.o.dwin was the more esteemed as the chosen counsellor of that popular prince. At his death, G.o.dwin was known to have wished, and even armed, for the restoration of the Saxon line; and only yielded to the determination of the Witan, no doubt acted upon by the popular opinion. Of one dark crime he was suspected, and, despite his oath to the contrary, and the formal acquittal of the national council, doubt of his guilt rested then, as it rests still, upon his name; viz., the perfidious surrender of Alfred, Edward"s murdered brother.
But time had pa.s.sed over the dismal tragedy; and there was an instinctive and prophetic feeling throughout the English nation, that with the House of G.o.dwin was identified the cause of the English people. Everything in this man"s aspect served to plead in his favour. His ample brows were calm with benignity and thought; his large dark blue eyes were serene and mild, though their expression, when examined, was close and inscrutable. His mien was singularly n.o.ble, but wholly without formality or affected state; and though haughtiness and arrogance were largely attributed to him, they could be found only in his deeds, not manner--plain, familiar, kindly to all men, his heart seemed as open to the service of his countrymen as his hospitable door to their wants.
Behind him stood the stateliest group of sons that ever filled with pride a father"s eye. Each strikingly distinguished from the other, all remarkable for beauty of countenance and strength of frame.
Sweyn, the eldest [82], had the dark hues of his mother the Dane: a wild and mournful majesty sat upon features aquiline and regular, but wasted by grief or pa.s.sion; raven locks, glossy even in neglect, fell half over eyes hollow in their sockets, but bright, though with troubled fire. Over his shoulder he bore his mighty axe. His form, spare, but of immense power, was sheathed in mail, and he leant on his great pointed Danish shield. At his feet sate his young son Haco, a boy with a countenance preternaturally thoughtful for his years, which were yet those of childhood.
Next to him stood the most dreaded and ruthless of the sons of G.o.dwin --he, fated to become to the Saxon what Julian was to the Goth. With his arms folded on his breast stood Tostig; his face was beautiful as a Greek"s, in all save the forehead, which was low and lowering. Sleek and trim were his bright chestnut locks; and his arms were damascened with silver, for he was one who loved the pomp and luxury of war.
Wolnoth, the mother"s favourite, seemed yet in the first flower of youth, but he alone of all the sons had something irresolute and effeminate in his aspect and bearing; his form, though tall, had not yet come to its full height and strength; and, as if the weight of mail were unusual to him, he leant with both hands upon the wood of his long spear. Leofwine, who stood next to Wolnoth, contrasted him notably; his sunny locks wreathed carelessly over a white unclouded brow, and the silken hair on the upper lip quivered over arch lips, smiling, even in that serious hour.
At G.o.dwin"s right hand, but not immediately near him, stood the last of the group, Gurth and Harold. Gurth had pa.s.sed his arm over the shoulder of his brother, and, not watching the nuncius while he spoke, watched only the effect his words produced on the face of Harold. For Gurth loved Harold as Jonathan loved David. And Harold was the only one of the group not armed; and had a veteran skilled in war been asked who of that group was born to lead armed men, he would have pointed to the man unarmed.
"So what says the King?" asked Earl G.o.dwin.
"This; he refuses to restore thee and thy sons, or to hear thee, till thou hast disbanded thine army, dismissed thy ships, and consented to clear thyself and thy house before the Witanagemot."
A fierce laugh broke from Tostig; Sweyn"s mournful brow grew darker; Leofwine placed his right hand on his ateghar; Wolnoth rose erect; Gurth kept his eyes on Harold, and Harold"s face was unmoved.
"The King received thee in his council of war," said G.o.dwin, thoughtfully, "and doubtless the Normans were there. Who were the Englishmen most of mark?"
"Siward of Northumbria, thy foe."
"My sons," said the Earl, turning to his children, and breathing loud as if a load were off his heart; "there will be no need of axe or armour to-day. Harold alone was wise," and he pointed to the linen tunic of the son thus cited.
"What mean you, Sir Father?" said Tostig, imperiously. "Think you to----"
"Peace, son, peace;" said G.o.dwin, without asperity, but with conscious command. "Return, brave and dear friend," he said to Vebba, "find out Siward the Earl; tell him that I, G.o.dwin, his foe in the old time, place honour and life in his hands, and what he counsels that will we do.--Go."
The Kent man nodded, and regained his boat. Then spoke Harold.
"Father, yonder are the forces of Edward; as yet without leaders, since the chiefs must still be in the halls of the King. Some fiery Norman amongst them may provoke an encounter; and this city of London is not won, as it behoves us to win it, if one drop of English blood dye the sword of one English man. Wherefore, with your leave, I will take boat, and land. And unless I have lost in my absence all right here in the hearts of our countrymen, at the first shout from our troops which proclaims that Harold, son of G.o.dwin, is on the soil of our fathers, half yon array of spears and helms pa.s.s at once to our side."
"And if not, my vain brother?" said Tostig, gnawing his lip with envy.
"And if not, I will ride alone into the midst of them, and ask what Englishmen are there who will aim shaft or spear at this breast, never mailed against England!"
G.o.dwin placed his hand on Harold"s head, and the tears came to those close cold eyes.
"Thou knowest by nature what I have learned by art. Go, and prosper. Be it as thou wilt."
"He takes thy post, Sweyn--thou art the elder," said Tostig, to the wild form by his side.
"There is guilt on my soul, and woe in my heart," answered Sweyn, moodily. "Shall Esau lose his birthright, and Cain retain it?" So saying, he withdrew, and, reclining against the stern of the vessel, leant his face upon the edge of his shield.
Harold watched him with deep compa.s.sion in his eyes, pa.s.sed to his side with a quick step, pressed his hand, and whispered, "Peace to the past, O my brother!"
The boy Haco, who had noiselessly followed his father, lifted his sombre, serious looks to Harold as he thus spoke; and when Harold turned away, he said to Sweyn, timidly, "He, at least, is ever good to thee and to me."
"And thou, when I am no more, shalt cling to him as thy father, Haco," answered Sweyn, tenderly smoothing back the child"s dark locks.
The boy shivered; and, bending his head, murmured to himself, "When thou art no more! No more? Has the Vala doomed him, too? Father and son, both?"
Meanwhile, Harold had entered the boat lowered from the sides of the aesca to receive him; and Gurth, looking appealingly to his father, and seeing no sign of dissent, sprang down after the young Earl, and seated himself by his side. G.o.dwin followed the boat with musing eyes.
"Small need," said he, aloud, but to himself, "to believe in soothsayers, or to credit Hilda the saga, when she prophesied, ere we left our sh.o.r.es, that Harold--" He stopped short, for Tostig"s wrathful exclamation broke on his reverie.
"Father, father! My blood surges in my ears, and boils in my heart, when I hear thee name the prophecies of Hilda in favour of thy darling. Dissension and strife in our house have they wrought already; and if the feuds between Harold and me have sown grey in thy locks, thank thyself when, flushed with vain soothsayings for thy favoured Harold, thou saidst, in the hour of our first childish broil, "Strive not with Harold; for his brothers will be his men.""
"Falsify the prediction," said G.o.dwin, calmly; "wise men may always make their own future, and seize their own fates. Prudence, patience, labour, valour; these are the stars that rule the career of mortals."
Tostig made no answer; for the splash of oars was near, and two ships, containing the princ.i.p.al chiefs that had joined G.o.dwin"s cause, came alongside the Runic aesca to hear the result of the message sent to the King. Tostig sprang to the vessel"s side, and exclaimed, "The King, girt by his false counsellors, will hear us not, and arms must decide between us."
"Hold, hold! malignant, unhappy boy!" cried G.o.dwin, between his grinded teeth, as a shout of indignant, yet joyous ferocity broke from the crowded ships thus hailed. "The curse of all time be on him who draws the first native blood in sight of the altars and hearths of London! Hear me, thou with the vulture"s blood-l.u.s.t, and the peac.o.c.k"s vain joy in the gaudy plume! Hear me, Tostig, and tremble. If but by one word thou widen the breach between me and the King, outlaw thou enterest England, outlaw shalt thou depart--for earldom and broad lands; choose the bread of the stranger, and the weregeld of the wolf!"
The young Saxon, haughty as he was, quailed at his father"s thrilling voice, bowed his head, and retreated sullenly. G.o.dwin sprang on the deck of the nearest vessel, and all the pa.s.sions that Tostig had aroused, he exerted his eloquence to appease.
In the midst of his arguments, there rose from the ranks on the strand, the shout of "Harold! Harold the Earl! Harold and Holy Crosse!" And G.o.dwin, turning his eye to the King"s ranks, saw them agitated, swayed, and moving; till suddenly, from the very heart of the hostile array, came, as by irresistible impulse, the cry, "Harold, our Harold! All hail, the good Earl!"
While this chanced without,--within the palace, Edward had quitted the presence-chamber, and was closeted with Stigand, the bishop. This prelate had the more influence with Edward, inasmuch as though Saxon, he was held to be no enemy to the Normans, and had, indeed, on a former occasion, been deposed from his bishopric on the charge of too great an attachment to the Norman queen-mother Emma [83]. Never in his whole life had Edward been so stubborn as on this occasion. For here, more than his realm was concerned, he was threatened in the peace of his household, and the comfort of his tepid friendships. With the recall of his powerful father-in-law, he foresaw the necessary reintrusion of his wife upon the charm of his chaste solitude. His favourite Normans would be banished, he should be surrounded with faces he abhorred. All the representations of Stigand fell upon a stern and unyielding spirit, when Siward entered the King"s closet.
"Sir, my King," said the great son of Beorn, "I yielded to your kingly will in the council, that, before we listened to G.o.dwin, he should disband his men, and submit to the judgment of the Witan. The Earl hath sent to me to say, that he will put honour and life in my keeping, and abide by my counsel. And I have answered as became the man who will never snare a foe, or betray a trust."
"How hast thou answered?" asked the King.
"That he abide by the laws of England; as Dane and Saxon agreed to abide in the days of Canute; that he and his sons shall make no claim for land or lordship, but submit all to the Witan."
"Good," said the King; "and the Witan will condemn him now, as it would have condemned when he shunned to meet it."
"And the Witan now," returned the Earl emphatically, "will be free, and fair, and just."
"And meanwhile, the troops----"
"Will wait on either side; and if reason fail, then the sword," said Siward.
"This I will not hear," exclaimed Edward; when the tramp of many feet thundered along the pa.s.sage; the door was flung open, and several captains (Norman as well as Saxon) of the King"s troops rushed in, wild, rude, and tumultuous.
"The troops desert! half the ranks have thrown down their arms at the very name of Harold!" exclaimed the Earl of Hereford. "Curses on the knaves!"
"And the lithsmen of London," cried a Saxon thegn, "are all on his side, and marching already through the gates."
"Pause yet," whispered Stigand; "and who shall say, this hour to- morrow, if Edward or G.o.dwin reign on the throne of Alfred?"
His stern heart moved by the distress of his King, and not the less for the unwonted firmness which Edward displayed, Siward here approached, knelt, and took the King"s hand.
"Siward can give no niddering counsel to his King; to save the blood of his subjects is never a king"s disgrace. Yield thou to mercy, G.o.dwin to the law!"
"Oh for the cowl and cell!" exclaimed the Prince, wringing his hands. "Oh Norman home, why did I leave thee?" He took the cross from his breast, contemplated it fixedly, prayed silently but with fervour, and his face again became tranquil.
"Go," he said, flinging himself on his seat in the exhaustion that follows pa.s.sion, "go, Siward, go, Stigand, deal with things mundane as ye will."
The bishop, satisfied with this reluctant acquiescence, seized Siward by the arm and withdrew him from the closet. The captains remained a few moments behind, the Saxons silently gazing on the King, the Normans whispering each other, in great doubt and trouble, and darting looks of the bitterest scorn at their feeble benefactor. Then, as with one accord, these last rushed along the corridor, gained the hall where their countrymen yet a.s.sembled, and exclaimed, "A toute bride! Franc etrier!--All is lost but life!--G.o.d for the first man,--knife and cord for the last!"
Then, as the cry of fire, or as the first crash of an earthquake, dissolves all union, and reduces all emotion into one thought of self- saving, the whole conclave, crowding pell-mell on each other, bustled, jostled, clamoured to the door--happy he who could find horse, palfrey,--even monk"s mule! This way, that way, fled those lordly Normans, those martial abbots, those mitred bishops--some singly, some in pairs; some by tens, and some by scores; but all prudently shunning a.s.sociation with those chiefs whom they had most courted the day before, and who, they now knew, would be the main mark for revenge; save only two, who yet, from that awe of the spiritual power which characterised the Norman, who was already half monk, half soldier (Crusader and Templar before Crusades were yet preached, or the Templars yet dreamed of),--even in that hour of selfish panic rallied round them the prowest chivalry of their countrymen, viz., the Bishop of London and the Archbishop of Canterbury. Both these dignitaries, armed cap-a-pie, and spear in hand, headed the flight; and good service that day, both as guide and champion, did Mallet de Graville. He led them in a circuit behind both armies, but being intercepted by a new body, coming from the pastures of Hertfordshire to the help of G.o.dwin, he was compelled to take the bold and desperate resort of entering the city gates. These were wide open; whether to admit the Saxon Earls, or vomit forth their allies, the Londoners. Through these, up the narrow streets, riding three abreast, dashed the slaughtering fugitives; worthy in flight of their national renown, they trampled down every obstacle. Bodies of men drew up against them at every angle, with the Saxon cry of "Out--Out!" "Down with the outland men!" Through each, spear pierced, and sword clove, the way. Red with gore was the spear of the prelate of London; broken to the hilt was the sword militant in the terrible hand of the Archbishop of Canterbury. So on thy rode, so on they slaughtered--gained the Eastern Gate, and pa.s.sed with but two of their number lost.
The fields once gained, for better precaution they separated. Some few, not quite ignorant of the Saxon tongue, doffed their mail, and crept through forest and fell towards the sea-sh.o.r.e; others retained steed and arms, but shunned equally the high roads. The two prelates were among the last; they gained, in safety, Ness, in Ess.e.x, threw themselves into an open, crazy, fishing-boat, committed themselves to the waves, and, half drowned and half famished, drifted over the Channel to the French sh.o.r.es. Of the rest of the courtly foreigners, some took refuge in the forts yet held by their countrymen; some lay concealed in creeks and caves till they could find or steal boats for their pa.s.sage. And thus, in the year of our Lord 1052, occurred the notable dispersion and ignominious flight of the counts and vavasours of great William the Duke!
CHAPTER III.
The Witana-gemot was a.s.sembled in the great hall of Westminster in all its imperial pomp.
It was on his throne that the King sate now--and it was the sword that was in his right hand. Some seated below, and some standing beside, the throne, were the officers of the Basileus [84] of Britain. There were to be seen camararius and pincerna, chamberlain and cupbearer; disc thegn and hors thegn [85]; the thegn of the dishes, and the thegn of the stud; with many more, whose state offices may not impossibly have been borrowed from the ceremonial pomp of the Byzantine court; for Edgar, King of England, had in the old time styled himself the Heir of Constantine. Next to these sat the clerks of the chapel, with the King"s confessor at their head. Officers were they of higher note than their name bespeaks, and wielders, in the trust of the Great Seal, of a power unknown of old, and now obnoxious to the Saxon. For tedious is the suit which lingers for the king"s writ and the king"s seal; and from those clerks shall arise hereafter a thing of torture and of might, which shall grind out the hearts of men, and be called CHANCERY! [86]
Below the scribes, a s.p.a.ce was left on the floor, and farther down sat the chiefs of the Witan. Of these, first in order, both from their spiritual rank and their vast temporal possessions, sat the lords of the Church; the chairs of the prelates of London and Canterbury were void. But still goodly was the array of Saxon mitres, with the harsh, hungry, but intelligent face of Stigand,--Stigand the stout and the covetous; and the benign but firm features of Alred, true priest and true patriot, distinguished amidst all. Around each prelate, as stars round a sun, were his own special priestly retainers, selected from his diocese. Farther still down the hall are the great civil lords and viceking va.s.sals of the "Lord-Paramount." Vacant the chair of the King of the Scots, for Siward hath not yet had his wish; Macbeth is in his fastnesses, or listening to the weird sisters in the wold; and Malcolm is a fugitive in the halls of the Northumbrian earl. Vacant the chair of the hero Gryffyth, son of Llewelyn, the dread of the marches, Prince of Gwyned, whose arms had subjugated all Cymry. But there are the lesser sub-kings of Wales, true to the immemorial schisms amongst themselves, which destroyed the realm of Ambrosius, and rendered vain the arm of Arthur. With their torques of gold, and wild eyes, and hair cut round ears and brow [87], they stare on the scene.
On the same bench with these sub-kings, distinguished from them by height of stature, and calm collectedness of mien, no less than by their caps of maintenance and furred robes, are those props of strong thrones and terrors of weak--the earls to whom shires and counties fall, as hyde and carricate to the lesser thegns. But three of these were then present, and all three the foes of G.o.dwin,--Siward, Earl of Northumbria; Leofric of Mercia (that Leofric whose wife G.o.diva yet lives in ballad and song); and Rolf, Earl of Hereford and Worcestershire, who, strong in his claim of "king"s blood," left not the court with his Norman friends. And on the same benches, though a little apart, are the lesser earls, and that higher order of thegns, called king"s thegns.
Not far from these sat the chosen citizens from the free burgh of London, already of great weight in the senate [88],--sufficing often to turn its counsels; all friends were they of the English Earl and his house. In the same division of the hall were found the bulk and true popular part of the meeting--popular indeed--as representing not the people, but the things the people most prized-valour and wealth; the thegn landowners, called in the old deeds the "Ministers:" they sate with swords by their side, all of varying birth, fortune, and connection, whether with king, earl, or ceorl. For in the different districts of the old Heptarchy, the qualification varied; high in East Anglia, low in Wess.e.x; so that what was wealth in the one shire was poverty in the other. There sate, half a yeoman, the Saxon thegn of Berkshire or Dorset, proud of his five hydes of land; there, half an ealderman, the Danish thegn of Norfolk or Ely, discontented with his forty; some were there in right of smaller offices under the crown; some traders, and sons of traders, for having crossed the high seas three times at their own risk; some could boast the blood of Offa and Egbert; and some traced but three generations back to neatherd and ploughman; and some were Saxons and some were Danes: and some from the western shires were by origin Britons, though little cognisant of their race. Farther down still, at the extreme end of the hall, crowding by the open doors, filling up the s.p.a.ce without, were the ceorls themselves, a vast and not powerless body; in these high courts (distinct from the shire gemots, or local senates)--never called upon to vote or to speak or to act, or even to sign names to the doom, but only to shout "Yea, yea," when the proceres p.r.o.nounced their sentence. Yet not powerless were they, but rather to the Witan what public opinion is to the Witan"s successor, our modern parliament: they were opinion! And according to their numbers and their sentiments, easily known and boldly murmured, often and often must that august court of basileus and prelate, va.s.sal-king and mighty earl, have shaped the council and adjudged the doom.
And the forms of the meeting had been duly said and done; and the King had spoken words no doubt wary and peaceful, gracious and exhortatory; but those words--for his voice that day was weak--travelled not beyond the small circle of his clerks and his officers; and a murmur buzzed through the hall, when Earl G.o.dwin stood on the floor with his six sons at his back; and you might have heard the hum of the gnat that vexed the smooth cheek of Earl Rolf, or the click of the spider from the web on the vaulted roof, the moment before Earl G.o.dwin spoke.
"If," said he, with the modest look and downcast eye of practised eloquence, "If I rejoice once more to breathe the air of England, in whose service, often perhaps with faulty deeds, but at all times with honest thoughts, I have, both in war and council, devoted so much of my life that little now remains--but (should you, my king, and you, prelates, proceres, and ministers so vouchsafe) to look round and select that spot of my native soil which shall receive my bones;--if I rejoice to stand once more in that a.s.sembly which has often listened to my voice when our common country was in peril, who here will blame that joy? Who among my foes, if foes now I have, will not respect the old man"s gladness? Who amongst you, earls and thegns, would not grieve, if his duty bade him say to the grey-haired exile, "In this English air you shall not breathe your last sigh--on this English soil you shall not find a grave!" Who amongst you would not grieve to say it?" (Suddenly he drew up his head and faced his audience.) "Who amongst you hath the courage and the heart to say it? Yes, I rejoice that I am at last in an a.s.sembly fit to judge my cause, and p.r.o.nounce my innocence. For what offence was I outlawed? For what offence were I, and the six sons I have given to my land, to bear the wolf"s penalty, and be chased and slain as the wild beasts? Hear me, and answer!"
"Eustace, Count of Boulogne, returning to his domains from a visit to our lord the King, entered the town of Dover in mail and on his war steed; his train did the same. Unknowing our laws and customs (for I desire to press light upon all old grievances, and will impute ill designs to none) these foreigners invade by force the private dwellings of citizens, and there select their quarters. Ye all know that this was the strongest violation of Saxon right; ye know that the meanest ceorl hath the proverb on his lip, "Every man"s house is his castle." One of the townsmen acting on this belief,--which I have yet to learn was a false one,--expelled from his threshold a retainer of the French Earl"s. The stranger drew his sword and wounded him; blows followed--the stranger fell by the arm he had provoked. The news arrives to Earl Eustace; he and his kinsmen spur to the spot; they murder the Englishman on his hearth-stone.--"
Here a groan, half-stifled and wrathful, broke from the ceorls at the end of the hall. G.o.dwin held up his hand in rebuke of the interruption, and resumed.
"This deed done, the outlanders rode through the streets with their drawn swords; they. butchered those who came in their way; they trampled even children under their horses" feet. The burghers armed. I thank the Divine Father, who gave me for my countrymen those gallant burghers! They fought, as we English know how to fight; they slew some nineteen or score of these mailed intruders; they chased them from the town. Earl Eustace fled fast. Earl Eustace, we know, is a wise man: small rest took he, little bread broke he, till he pulled rein at the gate of Gloucester, where my lord the King then held court. He made his complaint. My lord the King, naturally hearing but one side, thought the burghers in the wrong; and, scandalised that such high persons of his own kith should be so aggrieved, he sent for me, in whose government the burgh of Dover is, and bade me chastise, by military execution, those who had attacked the foreign Count. I appeal to the great Earls whom I see before me--to you, ill.u.s.trious Leofric; to you, renowned Siward--what value would ye set on your earldoms, if ye had not the heart and the power to see right done to the dwellers therein?"
"What was the course I proposed? Instead of martial execution, which would involve the whole burgh in one sentence, I submitted that the reeve and gerefas of the burgh should be cited to appear before the King, and account for the broil. My lord, though ever most clement and loving to his good people, either unhappily moved against me, or overswayed by the foreigners, was counselled to reject this mode of doing justice, which our laws, as settled under Edgar and Canute, enjoin. And because I would not,--and I say in the presence of all, because I, G.o.dwin, son of Wolnoth, durst not, if I would, have entered the free burgh of Dover with mail on my back and the doomsman at my right hand, these outlanders induced my lord the King to summon me to attend in person (as for a sin of my own) the council of the Witan, convened at Gloucester, then filled with the foreigners, not, as I humbly opined, to do justice to me and my folk of Dover, but to secure to this Count of Boulogne a triumph over English liberties, and sanction his scorn for the value of English lives."
"I hesitated, and was menaced with outlawry; I armed in self-defence, and in defence of the laws of England; I armed, that men might not be murdered on their hearth-stones, nor children trampled under the hoofs of a stranger"s war-steed. My lord the King gathered his troops round "the cross and the martlets." Yon n.o.ble earls, Siward and Leofric, came to that standard, as (knowing not then my cause) was their duty to the Basileus of Britain. But when they knew my cause, and saw with me the dwellers of the land, against me the outland aliens, they righteously interposed. An armistice was concluded; I agreed to refer all matters to a Witan held where it is held this day. My troops were disbanded; but the foreigners induced my lord not only to retain his own, but to issue his Herr-bann for the gathering of hosts far and near, even allies beyond the seas. When I looked to London for the peaceful Witan, what saw I? The largest armament that had been collected in this reign--that armament headed by Norman knights. Was this the meeting where justice could be done mine and me? Nevertheless, what was my offer? That I and my six sons would attend, provided the usual sureties, agreeable to our laws, from which only thieves [89] are excluded, were given that we should come and go life- free and safe. Twice this offer was made, twice refused; and so I and my sons were banished. We went;--we have returned!"
"And in arms," murmured Earl Rolf, son-in-law to that Count Eustace of Boulogne, whose violence had been temperately and truly narrated. [90]
"And in arms," repeated G.o.dwin: "true; in arms against the foreigners who had thus poisoned the ear of our gracious King; in arms, Earl Rolf; and at the first clash of those arms, Franks and foreigners have fled. We have no need of arms now. We are amongst our countrymen, and no Frenchman interposes between us and the ever gentle; ever generous nature of our born King."
"Peers and proceres, chiefs of this Witan, perhaps the largest ever yet a.s.sembled in man"s memory, it is for you to decide whether I and mine, or the foreign fugitives, caused the dissensions in these realms; whether our banishment was just or not; whether in our return we have abused the power we possessed. Ministers, on those swords by your sides there is not one drop of blood! At all events, in submitting to you our fate, we submit to our own laws and our own race. I am here to clear myself, on my oath, of deed and thought of treason. There are amongst my peers as king"s thegns, those who will attest the same on my behalf, and prove the facts I have stated, if they are not sufficiently notorious. As for my sons, no crime can be alleged against them, unless it be a crime to have in their veins that blood which flows in mine--blood which they have learned from me to shed in defence of that beloved land to which they now ask to be recalled."
The Earl ceased and receded behind his children, having artfully, by his very abstinence from the more heated eloquence imputed to him often as a fault and a wile, produced a powerful effect upon an audience already prepared for his acquittal.
But now as, from the sons, Sweyn the eldest stepped forth; with a wandering eye and uncertain foot, there was a movement like a shudder amongst the large majority of the audience, and a murmur of hate or of horror.
The young Earl marked the sensation his presence produced, and stopped short. His breath came thick; he raised his right hand, but spoke not. His voice died on his lips; his eyes roved wildly round with a haggard stare more imploring than defying. Then rose, in his episcopal stole, Alred the bishop, and his clear sweet voice trembled as he spoke.
"Comes Sweyn, son of G.o.dwin, here to prove his innocence of treason against the King?--if so, let him hold his peace; for if the Witan acquit G.o.dwin, son of Wolnoth, of that charge, the acquittal includes his House. But in the name of the holy Church here represented by its fathers, will Sweyn say, and fasten his word by oath, that he is guiltless of treason to the King of Kings--guiltless of sacrilege that my lips shrink to name? Alas, that the duty falls on me,--for I loved thee once, and love thy kindred now. But I am G.o.d"s servant before all things"--the prelate paused, and gathering up new energy, added in unfaltering accents, "I charge thee here, Sweyn the outlaw, that, moved by the fiend, thou didst bear off from G.o.d"s house and violate a daughter of the Church--Algive, Abbess of Leominster!"
"And I," cried Siward, rising to the full height of his stature, "I, in the presence of these proceres, whose proudest t.i.tle is milites or warriors--I charge Sweyn, son of G.o.dwin, that, not in open field and hand to hand, but by felony and guile, he wrought the foul and abhorrent murder of his cousin, Beorn the Earl!"
At these two charges from men so eminent, the effect upon the audience was startling. While those not influenced by G.o.dwin raised their eyes, sparkling with wrath and scorn, upon the wasted, yet still n.o.ble face of the eldest born, even those most zealous on behalf of that popular House evinced no sympathy for its heir. Some looked down abashed and mournful--some regarded the accused with a cold, unpitying gaze. Only perhaps among the ceorls, at the end of the hall, might be seen some compa.s.sion on anxious faces; for before those deeds of crime had been bruited abroad, none among the sons of G.o.dwin more blithe of mien and bold of hand, more honoured and beloved, than Sweyn the outlaw. But the hush that succeeded the charges was appalling in its depth. G.o.dwin himself shaded his face with his mantle, and only those close by could see that his breast heaved and his limbs trembled. The brothers had shrunk from the side of the accused, outlawed even amongst his kin--all save Harold, who, strong in his blameless name and beloved repute, advanced three strides, amidst the silence, and, standing by his brother"s side, lifted his commanding brow above the seated judges, but he did not speak.
Then said Sweyn the Earl, strengthened by such solitary companionship in that hostile a.s.semblage,--"I might answer that for these charges in the past, for deeds alleged as done eight long years ago, I have the King"s grace, and the inlaw"s right; and that in the Witans over which I as earl presided, no man was twice judged for the same offence. That I hold to be the law, in the great councils as the small."
"It is! it is!" exclaimed G.o.dwin: his paternal feelings conquering his prudence and his decorous dignity. "Hold to it, my son!"
"I hold to it not," resumed the young earl, casting a haughty glance over the somewhat blank and disappointed faces of his foes, "for my law is here"--and he smote his heart--"and that condemns me not once alone, but evermore! Alred, O holy father, at whose knees I once confessed my every sin,--I blame thee not that thou first, in the Witan, liftest thy voice against me, though thou knowest that I loved Algive from youth upward; she, with her heart yet mine, was given in the last year of Hardicanute, when might was right, to the Church. I met her again, flushed with my victories over the Walloon kings, with power in my hand and pa.s.sion in my veins. Deadly was my sin!--But what asked I? that vows compelled should be annulled; that the love of my youth might yet be the wife of my manhood. Pardon, that I knew not then how eternal are the bonds ye of the Church have woven round those of whom, if ye fail of saints, ye may at least make martyrs!"
He paused, and his lip curled, and his eye shot wild fire; for in that moment his mother"s blood was high within him, and he looked and thought, perhaps, as some heathen Dane, but the flash of the firmer man was momentary, and humbly smiting his breast, he murmured,-- "Avaunt, Satan!--yea, deadly was my sin! And the sin was mine alone; Algive, if stained, was blameless; she escaped--and--and died!"
"The King was wroth; and first to strive against my pardon was Harold my brother, who now alone in my penitence stands by my side: he strove manfully and openly; I blamed him not: but Beorn, my cousin, desired my earldom; and he strove against me, wilily and in secret,--to my face kind, behind my back despiteful. I detected his falsehood, and meant to detain, but not to slay him. He lay bound in my ship; he reviled and he taunted me in the hour of my gloom; and when the blood of the sea-kings flowed in fire through my veins. And I lifted my axe in ire; and my men lifted theirs, and so,--and so!--Again I say-- Deadly was my sin! Think not that I seek now to make less my guilt, as I sought when I deemed that life was yet long, and power was yet sweet. Since then I have known worldly evil, and worldly good,--the storm and the shine of life; I have swept the seas, a sea-king; I have battled with the Dane in his native land; I have almost grasped in my right hand, as I grasped in my dreams, the crown of my kinsman, Canute;--again, I have been a fugitive and an exile;--again, I have been inlawed, and Earl of all the lands from Isis to the Wye [91]. And whether in state or in penury,--whether in war or in peace, I have seen the pale face of the nun betrayed, and the gory wounds of the murdered man. Wherefore I come not here to plead for a pardon, which would console me not, but formally to dissever my kinsmen"s cause from mine, which alone sullies and degrades it;--I come here to say, that, coveting not your acquittal, fearing not your judgment, I p.r.o.nounce mine own doom. Cap of n.o.ble, and axe of warrior, I lay aside for ever; barefooted, and alone, I go hence to the Holy Sepulchre; there to a.s.soil my soul, and implore that grace which cannot come from man! Harold, step forth in the place of Sweyn the first-born! And ye prelates and peers, milites and ministers, proceed to adjudge the living! To you, and to England, he who now quits you is the dead!"
He gathered his robe of state over his breast as a monk his gown, and looking neither to right nor to left, pa.s.sed slowly down the hall, through the crowd, which made way for him in awe and silence; and it seemed to the a.s.sembly as if a cloud had gone from the face of day.
And G.o.dwin still stood with his face covered by his robe.
And Harold anxiously watched the faces of the a.s.sembly, and saw no relenting.
And Gurth crept to Harold"s side.
And the gay Leofwine looked sad.
And the young Wolnoth turned pale and trembled.
And the fierce Tostig played with his golden chain.
And one low sob was heard, and it came from the breast of Alred the meek accuser,--G.o.d"s firm but gentle priest.