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THE WELSH BURN HEREFORD.

337

their English neighbours during the thirteen years preceding the settlement that was now to be effected. In 1050 Griffith, King of North Wales, in conjunction with some marauders from Ireland, had crossed the Wye and defeated a force which Bishop Ealdred of Worcester had collected to meet them. In the year

of Godwin's banishment Griffith had renewed his ravages, and had defeated with great loss a Norman force which issued from the Castle of Leominster to attack him. Three years afterwards he found an ally in Ælfgar, son of Leofric, of Mercia, who had been outlawed, and had raised a piratical force in Ireland. The two invaded Herefordshire, and were met by. Radulf, the Norman earl of the West country. Radulf mounted his English troops on horseback. This was a kind of fighting to which they were not accustomed, and their lines were speedily broken. Whether they carried away their Norman and French comrades in their flight, or whether the latter were the first to leave their ground, we cannot say. Anyhow, the English army fled almost without striking a blow. Griffith and Ælfgar now entered Hereford and burnt both the city and the cathedral. They then returned to Wales with a great quantity of booty and long trains of prisoners. Harold meanwhile had collected an army and followed the enemy into their own country. Griffith retired into South Wales.

The year following, though he had lost Ælfgar, who had meanwhile been restored to his earldom, he again invaded England, and was again successful. This time he met and vanquished Leofgar, the newlyappointed Bishop of Hereford, who had put himself

at the head of the English forces. The end of this campaign was a peace, Griffith swearing to yield henceforth a peaceful homage to King Edward.

The peace was soon broken. In 1058 Ælfgar was again banished, again allied himself to Griffith (who seems to have married his daughter), and again recovered his earldom by his help.

In 1063 Harold resolved to put an end to these troublesome incursions. To do this he felt that he must carry the war into the enemy's country. He equipped his men in a way that would make them a better match in speed and agility for the nimble mountaineers. They carried light spears; their helmets and corslets were of leather. Thus armed, they pursued the Welsh into the defiles and hollows of Snowdon. Harold made his way through Wales to Bristol, where he took ship and sailed round the coast, Earl Tostig meanwhile ravaging the country with his cavalry. The Welsh were thoroughly cowed. Griffith escaped for the time, but the next year was murdered by his subjects, who sent his head and the beak of his ship to the English king. His half-brothers were appointed sub-kings of Wales in his place.

It is probably to the year after the death of Griffith, i.e., to 1064, that we must assign a strange incident, itself, it would seem, the result of the merest chance, if there be such a thing as chance, which had yet a strong influence on the after-fortunes of Harold and of England. Of this incident more than one version is given; indeed, it is assigned to more than one time. I feel safe in following the preference which Professor Freeman has given to the story that follows.

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Harold, then, it seems, sometime in the latter part of this year, set out on what we should call a yachting trip in the English Channel. He had three ships with him, and carried dogs and hawks for purposes of sport. Bad weather drove him to the coast of Ponthieu, and on that coast he seems to have been wrecked. A fisherman, who happened to know him by sight, hastened to Count Guy, and offered for twenty pounds to show him a prisoner who would be willing to pay a hundred pounds for his ransom. The Count rode to the coast, ordered Harold to be seized, and carried him to one of his inland fortresses. But one of his attendants contrived to escape, and making his way to Count William of Normandy at his palace in Rouen, told him how Count Guy had inhospitably seized his master. William, we may be sure, was not sorry to hear of what had happened, and had no doubt what was to be done at once, whatever might follow afterwards. A messenger was despatched in hot haste to Guy, to demand, with threats, if necessary, the liberation of this prisoner. This was a request to which Guy, inspired, as were the rest of William's neighbours, with no little awe of his power, at once yielded. He took his prisoner out of his dungeon, and rode with him to En, where he met the Duke. His prompt obedience was handsomely rewarded. As for Harold, he soon found that he had to pay a price for his liberty much heavier than any ransom which Count Guy could have thought of extorting.

For a time the Duke seemed to think of nothing but doing his guest all the honours that he could think

HAROLD FALLS INTO WILLIAM'S HANDS. 341

of. Tournaments were held to amuse him. He lived on the most friendly terms with the Duke's family. It is even said that he was engaged to marry one of the Duke's daughters, then, it is true, young children, and that he promised to give his sister Elgiva in marriage to a Norman noble. He received knighthood at the hands of his host, and accompanied him on an expedition against the men of Brittany. It was on his return from this war that the Englishman found that he had to pay the price for all these pleasures. Something more than his own marriage to a Norman princess, or the giving of his sister to a Norman, was asked of him. He was to become "Duke William's man," to acknowledge him as Edward's heir in the kingdom of England, and to look after his interests as long as Edward lived. Other things, too, that have a quite impossible look, such as the immediate surrender of Dover Castle, are said to have been demanded.

Harold had no choice but to yield. He was virtually a prisoner, however comfortable his prison, and there were no means of escape. Accordingly he made the promises demanded, and confirmed them with an oath. And here comes in the strangest part of this strange story. A common oath would not be enough. Some unusual sanction must be added which would make perjury too dreadful a crime to be thought of. This addition William cunningly contrived to make without Harold's knowledge. The Englishman swore, as he thought, a simple oath on the Gospels. But the Gospels rested on a chest which had been filled with the relics of saints, the holiest

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