storm came on, and though the greater part of the ships escaped to St. Vallery, near Dieppe, several were lost, and the shore was covered with wrecks and the bodies of the drowned. To appease the wrath of Heaven, William caused the body of St. Vallery to be carried in solemn procession, and when the weather became serene the armament again put to sea; the duke's galley leading the way. This was the present to him of his wife Matilda; on its prow stood a golden boy, his right hand pointing to England, his left holding an ivory trumpet to his mouth. The vessels advanced so unequally, that when the duke reached the English coast many of them were still twenty leagues in the rear, and they would have been an easy prey to the English fleet if it had been at hand; but fortune favoured William in every way; the wind which he had deemed so adverse had only detained him till Hardrada had landed and drawn the disciplined forces of Harold to the north, and in that interval the English fleet had been obliged to disperse to get provisions, and the wind had not yet permitted it to re-assemble. He landed without opposition at Pevensey (Sept. 28), whence he advanced to Hastings, and raised fortifications at both places to protect his ships, which were speedily blocked up by the English fleet*.

It is said that when William sprang to land from his galley he stumbled and fell. The superstition of the age might have converted this into an ill omen, but the soldier who raised him had the presence of mind to avert it: seeing his hands full of mud, he cried, “ Fortunate leader ! you have already taken England! its earth is in your hands !"

Harold flew to London on hearing of the landing of the Norman ; though he had lost some of his best troops in the late battle, and, it is said, had disgusted the rest by retaining the whole of the Norwegian spoil, he assembled within six days a force which he deemed sufficient to meet the in

* Hence the falsehood appears of the story of his burning his ships.

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vaders. He sent spies to ascertain their strength; William, it is said, caused these men to be led through his camp and then dismissed. As the Normans shaved the upper lip, contrary to the English custom, the spies told Harold that they looked like an army of priests; he laughed, and said, they would find these priests right valiant soldiers. Messages passed between the two rivals. William offered Harold the option of a legal trial of their claims, or a single combat. Harold replied that God should judge between them: his brother Gurth then urged, that as he had been so unfortunate as to be obliged to take an oath of fealty to William, it would be wiser for him not to enter the battle in person, but to let him, whose conscience was clear, lead the troops. Harold derided these apprehensions, and forthwith set out with his forces in the hopes of surprising the Normans like the Norwegians; but William was too alert; his scouts brought him timely word, and Harold giving over his plan of a night-attack, the two armies took a position at a place anciently named Senlac, now called Battle, from the event, eight miles on the London side of Hastings.

It was the laudable custom of that age for the warriors to employ themselves in devotional exercises the night previous to a battle, and to hear mass and receive the sacrament in the morning. With this the Normans complied, while the English, we are told, passed the night in feasting and revelry. At dawn (Oct. 15) Harold drew up his troops on the declivity of a hill in one compact solid mass; their rear was protected by an extensive wood; each man was covered by his shield and grasped a battle-axe, the ancient English weapon. The king and all his nobles, and other horsemen, dismounted and took their station with the rest; in the centre waved the royal banner containing the figure of a fighting warrior woven in gold, and adorned with precious stones; beneath it stood Harold and his brothers Gurth and Leofwin. On an opposite eminence the duke marshalled his troops in three lines, the first of archers, the

second of heavy infantry, the third of his numerous cavalry in five squadrons; the papal banner was raised in their front by Toustaine the Fair; William bore suspended from his neck the relics on which Harold had sworn.

The Normans raised their war-cry of “ God help us!" and advanced; the English responded by shouts of “ Holy rood ! God's rood!” A Norman knight, it is said named Taillefer, preceded the army mounted on a stately horse, tossing his sword up in the air with one hand and catching it with the other, and singing aloud the deeds of the hero Roland; he slew two English warriors, but fell by the hand of a third. The Normans ascended the hill; their archers having discharged their arrows fell back on the infantry, but neither could make any impression on the English phalanx : the cavalry then charged; the battleaxe hewed them down; the Norman left wing, horse and foot, turned and fled; the opposite English broke from the mass and pursued; a report was spread that the duke had fallen; William took off his helmet and rode along the line. A body of cavalry got in the rear of the English, who had pursued; the fugitives turned, and the English were all cut to pieces. Again the Normans assailed the English phalanx; but firm and unmoved it withstood the shock. William then had recourse to stratagem ; a part of his horse feigned flight; the English again broke and pursued: a deep ditch, concealed by vegetation, lay in the way: pursuers and pursued fell into it pell-mell, and the English were destroyed as before. The same stratagem was tried with the same success in another part of the line. Still the main body of the English stood unbroken around their king; but William had directed his archers to shoot upwards, that their arrow's might fall down on their enemies, and by one of these Harold was wounded in the eye; his brothers were already fallen. Twenty Norman knights rushed to seize the royal banner; Harold was slain; the English broke and fled. It was now night, but the Nor

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mans pursued them by the light of the moon, and the fugitives turning on them where the place was full of ditches, took a severe vengeance for their defeat. Thus was this memorable battle terminated ; the victors lost in it a fourth

; of their number; the loss of the vanquished, like their original number, is unknown.

William caused a spot near where Harold had fallen to be cleared, and pitched his tent there, in which he and his barons supped that night. He afterwards founded an abbey on that spot named Battle, in which prayers were to be continually offered up for the souls of those who had fallen.* Though Harold's mother offered its weight in gold for his body he refused it. He caused it to be buried on the seashore, saying, “ He guarded the coast when living, let him still guard it now that he is dead.” He seems, however, to have afterwards relented, and the remains of Harold finally reposed at the abbey of Waltham, which he had founded.

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CHAPTER VI.

THE ANGLO-SAXON CONSTITUTION*.

Division of the people.—Magistrates. Division of the land.—Courts of justice.-Witena-gemot.—Punishment of crimes.—Ordeals.-Freeborh or

Frankpledge.-Feudal usages. The church. The revenue. In our attempt to sketch the political condition of our Anglo-Saxon forefathers we will consider the people, the land and the institutions.

We have above observed the resemblance which England under the Saxons presented to the heroic age of Greece. In both the royal families were a peculiar caste, claiming its descent from the supreme deity adored by the people; both likewise had a class of landed nobility, and an inferior class of ignoble cultivators and artisans, and in both there was a class without personal freedom. This division of society was by no means, however, peculiar to them ; it is to be found throughout a great part of the world, and seems to be a necessary result of human nature.

The name of the Anglo-Saxon nobility as a class was Eorls or Eorlcundment. They seem to have consisted of two parts, the Hlafords or Lords, those who were actually in the possession of land and its rights and privileges, and the Sithcundmen, or those who were noble by blood, but who had not landed property to entitle them to the rank of Hlaford f. They were a kind of inferior nobility or gentry.