then sailed after the Earls towards London.1 The language of our story seems to imply that neither Godwine nor Harold had any hand in this seemingly quite wanton outrage. Needlessly to harm the house or estate of any Englishman at such a moment was quite contrary to Godwine's policy, quite contrary to the course which both he and Harold had followed since they met at Portland. The deed was probably done by some unruly portion of the fleet, by some Englishman who seized the opportunity to gratify some local jealousy, by some Dane who, consciously or unconsciously, looked with a pirate's eye on the corner of Britain where his race had first found a winter's shelter.2

5

The fleet was now (September 14) in the Thames. Strengthened by the whole naval force of south-eastern England, the Earl had now a following which was formidable indeed. The river was covered with ships; their decks were thick with warriors harnessed for the battle.3 In such wise the Earl advanced to Southwark, and halted there, in sight doubtless of his own house, of the house whence he and his sons had fled for their lives a year before. He had to wait for the tide, and he employed the interval in sending messages to the citizens of London. The townsfolk of the great city were not a whit behind their brethren of Kent and Sussex in zeal for the national cause. The spirit which had beaten back Swegen and Cnut, the spirit which was in after times to make London ever the stronghold of English freedom, the spirit which made its citizens foremost in the patriot armies alike of the thirteenth and of the seventeenth centuries, was now as warm in the hearts of those gallant burghers as in any earlier or later age. With a voice all but unanimous, the citizens declared in favour of the deliverer; a few votes only, the votes, it may be, of strangers or of courtiers, were given against the emphatic resolution that what the Earl would the city would."

But meanwhile where was King Eadward? At a later crisis of hardly inferior moment we shall find him taking his pleasure among the forests of Wiltshire, and needing no little persuasion to make him leave his sport and give a moment's thought to the affairs of his Kingdom. He must have been engaged at this time in some such

1 Chron. Petrib., where see Mr. Earle's note (p. 346), and Appendiz Z.

2 See vol. i. pp. 30, 261.

3 Vita Eadw. 405. "Pelagus operiebatur carinis, cœlum densissimis resplendebat armis." If this was so when they were in the open sea, it must a fortiori have been so when they were in the river.

4 See above, p. 95.

6"pæt hi woldon mæst ealle þæt þæt he wolde," say the Abingdon and Worcester Chronicles. This answer to a message sounds to me like the vote of an assembly of some kind, in which we may also discern the opposition of a small minority. The Biographer (406) also witnesses to the good disposition of the Londoners; "Sed omnis civitas Duci obviam et auxilio pro

5 Chronn. Ab. and Wig. "He gefadode cessit et præsidio, acclamantque illi omnes wip da burhwaru."

unâ voce prospere in adventu suo."

GODWINE SAILS UP THE THAMES.

215

absorbing pursuit, as he appears to have heard nothing of Godwine's triumphant progress along the southern coast till the Earl had actually reached Sandwich. The news awakened him to a fit of unusual energy. The interests at stake were indeed not small; the return of Godwine might cut him off from every face that reminded him of his beloved Normandy; he might be forced again to surround himself with Englishmen, and to recall his wife from her cloister to his palace. In such a cause King Eadward did not delay. Accompanied by the Earls Ralph and Odda and surrounded by a train of Norman knights. and priests, he came with all speed to London, and thence sent out orders for the immediate gathering in arms of such of his subjects as still remained loyal to him.1 But men had no heart in the cause; the summons was slowly and imperfectly obeyed. The King contrived however, before the fleet of Godwine actually reached the city, to get together fifty ships,2 those no doubt whose crews had forsaken them a few weeks earlier. And he contrived, out of his own Housecarls, strengthened, it would seem, by the levies of some of the northern shires, to gather a force strong enough to line the northern shore of the Thames with armed men.3

The day on which Godwine and his fleet reached Southwark was an auspicious one. It was the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. It was the day kept in memory of the triumphant return and the devout humility of that renowned Emperor who restored the glory of the Roman arms, who rivalled the great Macedonian in a second overthrow of the Persian power, and who brought with him, as the choicest trophy of his victories, that holiest of Christian relics which his sword had won back from heathen bondage. Harold, like Heraclius, was returning to his own, perhaps already the sworn votary of that revered relic whose name he chose as his war-cry, and in whose honour he was perhaps already planning that great foundation which was of itself enough to make his name immortal. The day of the Holy Cross must indeed have been a day of the brightest omen to the future founder of Waltham. And a memorable and a happy day

1 66 pa sende he up æfter maran fultume," says the Abingdon Chronicle, which Florence rather pathetically expands into "Nuntiis propere missis, omnibus qui a se non defecerant mandavit ut in adjutorium sui venire maturarent."

2 The Peterborough Chronicle, which, just at this point, is less full than Abingdon and Worcester, gives the number; "Ɖa hi to Lundene comon; pa læg se cyng and þa eorlas ealle þær ongean mid L. scipum." 3 The King's ships were on the north bank of the river, "wið þæs norðlandes (Chron. Ab.); his land-force ("se cyng

hæfde eac mycele landfyrde on his healfe, to eacan his scypmannum ") was doubtless drawn up on the same side, as the Southwark side was clearly in the hands of Godwine. From the words in Italics, compared with the expressions quoted just before, it would seem that some at least of the northern levies came, perhaps under the command of their own Earls.

+ The Abingdon Chronicle describes the day; "Dat was on pone Monandæg æfter Sea Marian mæsse." Florence and Roger of Wendover (i. 491) mark it as "dies exaltationis Sanctæ Crucis.”

it was. Events were thickly crowded into its short hours, events which, even after so many ages, may well make every English heart swell with pride. It is something indeed to feel ourselves of the blood and speech of the actors of that day and of its morrow. The tide for which the fleet had waited came soon after the Earls had received the promise of support from the burghers of London. The anchors were weighed; the fleet sailed on with all good hope. The bridge was passed without hindrance, and the Earls found themselves, as they had found themselves a year before, face to face with the armies of their sovereign. But men's minds had indeed changed since the Witan of England had passed a decree of outlawry against Godwine and his house. Besides his fleet, Godwine now found himself at the head of a land force which might seem to have sprung out of the earth at his bidding. The King's troops lined the north bank of the Thames, but its southern bank was lined, at least as thickly, with men who had come together, like their brethren of the southern coasts, ready to live and die with the great Earl. The whole force of the neighbourhood, instead of obeying the King's summons, had come unsummoned to the support of Godwine, and stood ready in battle array awaiting his orders.1 And different indeed was the spirit of the two hosts. The Earl's men were eager for action; it needed all his eloquence, all his authority, to keep them back from jeoparding or disgracing his cause by too hasty an attack on their sovereign or on their countrymen. But the Englishmen who had obeyed Eadward's call were thoroughly disheartened and lukewarm in his cause. The King's own Housecarls shrank from the horrors of a civil war, a war in which Englishmen would be called on to slaughter one another, for no object but to rivet the yoke of outlandish men about their necks.3 With the two armies in this temper, the success

1 Chron. Ab. "And seo landfyrd com ufenon, and trymedon hig be þam strande." Flor. Wig. "Venit et pedestris exercitus, ac se per oram fluvii ordinatim disponens, spissam terribilemque fecit testudinem." "Pedestris exercitus" is only accidentally an accurate rendering of "landfyrd." Doubtless they were on foot, but what the word specially implies is that the popular levies, the militia of the shires round London, came unbidden to support Godwine. The King had only his Housecarls and any troops that may have come from the north.

2 Chron. Ab. "And hi hwemdon pa mid þam scypon wið þæs norðlandes, swylce hig woldon bæs cynges scipa abutan berymman." Vita Eadw. 406. "Et quoniam

2

facultas undique superiores vires administrabat, hortabantur quam plures, ut etiam in ipsum Regem irruerent." This feeling was still stronger a little later in the day. We must remember that in this story we are dealing, not with days but with hours.

3 Chron. Ab. "Ac hit was heom mæst eallon lað þæt hig sceoldon fohtan wið heora agenes cynnes mannum . . . . . . Eac hig noldon þæt utlendiscum þeodum wäre pes eard þurh þæt þe swiðor gerymed pe hî heom sylfe ælc oðerne forfore." The words doubtless simply mean men of their own nation. Roger of Wendover (i. 491) must have had this Chronicle before him, and must have taken the words to mean kinsmen in the later and narrower sense; 'Angli, quorum filii, nepotes, et consan

66

OPPOSITE FEELINGS IN THE TWO ARMIES.

217

of Godwine was certain; all that was needed was for the Earl to insure that it should be a bloodless success. The object of Godwine was to secure his own restoration and the deliverance of his country without striking a blow. He sent a message to the King, praying that he and his might be restored to all that had been unjustly taken from them.1 The King, with his Norman favourites around him, hesitated for a while. The indignation of the Earl's men grew deeper and louder; fierce cries were heard against the King and against all who took part with him; no power less than that of Godwine could have checked the demand for instant battle.2 The result of a battle could hardly have been doubtful. Ralph the Timid and Richard the son of Scrob, even the pious Earl Odda himself, would hardly, even at the head of more willing soldiers, have found themselves a match for the warrior who had fleshed his sword at Sherstone and Assandun, and who had made the name of Englishman a name of terror among the stoutest warriors of the shores of the Baltic. But it was not with

axe and javelin that that day's victory was to be won. The mighty voice, the speaking look and gesture, of that old man eloquent could again sway assemblies of Englishmen at his will. His irresistible tongue now pleaded with all earnestness against any hasty act of violence or disloyalty. His own conscience was clear from any lack of faithfulness; he would willingly die rather than do, or allow to be done on his behalf, any act of wrong or irreverence towards his Lord the King. The appeal was successful in every way. The eagerness of his own men was checked, and time was given for more wholesome counsels to resume their sway on the other side. Bishop Stigand and

guinei cum Godwino 'erant, noluerunt contra eos dimicare." Florence has the intermediate expression "propinquos ac compatriotas."

1 Chron. Petrib. "Pa sendon þa eorlas to pam cynge, and gerndon to him þæt hi moston beon wurde ælc þæra þinga be heom mid unrihte ofgenumen wæs."

2 Ib.

"Da wiðlæg se cyng sume hwile, peah swa lange, od pet folc be mid bam eorle wes weard swide astyred ongean pone cyng and ongean his folc."

3 See vol. i. p. 283. The Worcester and Abingdon Chronicles, a little way before, have a singular remark that the only good troops on both sides were English; "Forðan þar was lyt elles pe aht mycel myhton buton Englisce men on ægber healfe." This sounds like a slur on the military prowess alike of the King's Frenchmen, of Harold's Irish Danes, and of any Flemings who may have come with Godwine.

4 Chron. Petrib. "Swa þæt se eorl sylf earfoðlice gestylde þæt folc." So the Biographer, in his more rhetorical way, “Verum fidelis et Deo devotus Dux verbis et nutu admodum abhorruit." William of Malmesbury, a little later, pays a fine tribute to Godwine's eloquence, which is rather a favourite subject of his; "Senex ille et linguâ potens [some read "et famâ clarus et linguâ potens"] ad flectendos animos audientium."

5 Vita Eadw. 406. "Dum," inquit, "fidelitatis suæ in corde meo habeam hodie testem, me scilicet malle mortem, quam aliquid indecens et iniquum egerim, vel agam, vel me vivo agi permittam in dominum meum Regem [cynehlaforde]." William of Malmesbury is certainly justified in saying of Godwine personally, if not of all Godwine's followers, "pacifico animo repatriantes."

other wise men, both from within and from without the city, appeared on board the Earl's ship in the character of mediators. It was soon agreed to give hostages on both sides, and to refer the decision of all matters to a solemn Gemót to be holden the next morning (September 15).1 Godwine, Harold, and such of their followers as thought good, now left their ships, and once more set foot in peace on the soil of their native island.2 The Earl and his sons no doubt betook themselves to his own house in Southwark, and there waited for the gathering of the next day with widely different feelings from those with which they had last waited in that house for the decisions of an Assembly of the Wise.

But there were those in the court of Eadward who could not with the like calmness await the sentence of the great tribunal which was to give judgement on the morrow. There were those high in Church and State who knew too well what would be the inevitable vote of a free assembly of Englishmen. There were Thegns and Prelates in Eadward's court who saw in the promised meeting of the Witan of the land only a gathering of men eager to inflict on them the righteous punishment of their evil deeds. First and foremost among them was the Norman monk whom the blind partiality of Eadward had thrust into the highest place in the English Church. Robert of Jumièges, the man who, more than any other one man, had stirred up strife between the King and his people, the man who, more than any other one man, had driven the noblest sons of England into banishment, now knew that his hour was come. He dared not face the assembled nation which he had outraged; he dared not take his place in that great Council of which his office made him the highest member. The like fear fell on Ulf of Dorchester, the Bishop who had done nought bishoplike, on William of London, and on all the Frenchmen, priests and knights alike, who had sunned themselves in the smiles of the court, but who shrank from meeting the assembly of the people. Flight was their only hope. As soon as the news came that peace was made, and that all matters were referred to a lawful Gemót, the whole company of the strangers who had been the curse of England mounted their horses and rode for their lives. Eastward, westward, northward, Norman knights and priests were seen hurrying. Godwine and Harold, in the like case, had been treacherously pursued; but these men, criminals as they were, fleeing from the vengeance of an offended nation, were allowed to go whither they would without let or hindrance. Whatever violence was

1 See Appendix AA.

3

2 Chron. Ab. "And Godwine for upp, and Harold his sunu, and heora lið swa

mycel swa heom pa gepuhte."

3 Harold certainly, perhaps Godwine also. See above, p. 100.