which I shall attempt to describe in the following chapter. There was the ring, hedged about with the wall of shields, and the assailants plying upon it sword and battle-axe. Only the parts are changed. At Stamford Bridge the English attack, at Senlac they stand on their defence. They lose the later, as they win the earlier fight.

What is certain is that the Norwegian host was utterly broken. "Three kings were slain," says the Chronicler, meaning Harold, Tostig, and an Irish prince who had joined their alliance, in the hope of getting some share of English plunder. As for their followers, few seem to have left the field of Stamford Bridge alive. But those who had been left with the fleet fared better. Harold offered them peace. They came to York, gave him hostages, and swore a great oath that they would keep the peace with England thereafter. Then they sailed away, carrying with them, according to one account, the body of Harold Hardrada for burial in his native land.

The English king had much to do in settling the affairs of the North, and he had also to give his army some rest. He was still at York when a swift messenger brought the news that William of Normandy had landed on the southern coast. He heard the tidings, not as he sat at the banquet on the evening of the day of Stamford Bridge, but, as we may guess, about seven days after. He turned at once to meet this new and more dangerous foe.1

The battle of Stamford Bridge was fought on September 25th. William landed on September 28th. The fleetest messenger could hardly have traversed the two hundred miles that lie between the south coast and York in less than four days.

XXXIII.

THE LAST STRUGGLE.

My story must now go back to the early days of the year 1066. It was not long before William heard the news of Edward's death and Harold's accession. The tidings came to him as he was setting out for a day's hunting. He turned back at once on hearing them, but said nothing, nor did any man dare to speak to him. Then he went to his palace at Rouen, and sat deep in thought, with his face covered. He must have been long expecting such news. Edward's life he knew to be precarious, and he could not have doubted what Harold's hopes had been. But such things, whether expected or not, must always be a surprise; and he had to make up his mind at once. For years his thoughts had been bent on possessing himself of the crown of England; and now the time was come for putting them. Whatever his confidence, he could not take such news lightly.

The first step was, of course, to send an embassy to Harold with a formal claim of the crown. We do not know the precise terms of the message, but we can easily imagine them. William must have called upon Harold to fulfil the promises which he had made, or,

at least, some of them. By rights he ought to yield up the kingdom. Failing to do that, let him at least marry the duke's daughter, to whom he had been contracted in time past, and give his own sister in marriage to a Norman noble. Harold's answer is variously reported, but here, too, we may supply it for ourselves. The kingdom was not his to surrender; it had been given to him by the English people. That

EVM:TEN

HAWKING.

(From the Bayeaux Tapestry.)

people, too, would have something to say about his marriage. Their pleasure was that an English king should take an English wife. As for his sister, she was dead.

William did not expect to have any other answer. His demands had been made as a matter of form, and with the object of putting his adversary in the wrong. This done, he set about preparing for the great enterprise of the conquest of England. The first thing