anxious about his successor, because he had
even invited over, from abroad, EDWARD THE
OUTLAW, a son of Ironside, who had come to
England with his wife and three children, but
whom the King had strangely refused to see
when he did come, and who had died in London
suddenly (princes were terribly liable to
sudden death in those days), and had been
buried in Saint Paul's Cathedral. The King
might possibly have made such a will, or,
having always been fond of the Normans, he
might have encouraged Norman William to
aspire to the English crown, by something
that he said to him when he was staying at
the English court. But, certainly William did
now aspire to it; and knowing that Harold
would be a powerful rival, he called together
a great assembly of his nobles, offered
Harold his daughter ADELE in marriage,
informed him that he meant on King Edward's
death to claim the English crown as his
inheritance, and required Harold then and
there to swear to aid him. Harold, being in
the Duke's power, took this oath upon the
Missal, or Prayer-book. It is a good example
of the degrading superstitions of the monks,
that this Missal, instead of being placed upon
a table, was placed upon a tub: which, when
Harold had sworn, was uncovered, and shown
to be full of dead men's bones—bones, as the
monks pretended, of saints. This was supposed
to make Harold's oath a great deal
more impressive and binding. As if the great
name of the Creator of Heaven and earth could
be made more solemn by a knuckle-bone, or a
double-tooth, or a finger-nail of Dunstan!

Within a week or two after Harold's return
to England, the dreary old Confessor was
found to be dying. After wandering in his
mind like a very weak old man, he died. As
he had put himself entirely in the hands of
the monks when he was alive, they praised
him loudly when he was dead. They had
gone so far, already, as to persuade him that he
could work miracles, and had brought people
afflicted with a bad disorder of the skin, to
him, to be touched and cured. This was called
"touching for the King's Evil," which afterwards
became a royal custom. You know,
however, who really touched the sick, and
healed them; and you know His sacred name
is not among the dusty line of human kings.

Harold was crowned King of England on
the very day of the maudlin Confessor's
funeral. He had good need to be quick
about it. When the news reached Norman
William, hunting in his park at Rouen, he
dropped his bow, returned to his palace,
called his nobles to council, and presently
sent ambassadors to Harold, calling on him to
keep his oath, and resign the Crown. Harold
would do no such thing. The barons of France
leagued together round Duke William for the
invasion of England. Duke William promised
freely to distribute English wealth and English
lands among them. The Pope sent to
Normandy a consecrated banner, and a ring,
containing a hair which he warranted to have
grown on the head of Saint Peter. He blessed
the enterprise, and cursed Harold, and requested
that the Normans would pay " Peter's
Pence "—or a tax to himself of a penny a
year on every house—a little more regularly
in future, if they could make it convenient.

King Harold (the second of the name) had
a rebel brother in Flanders, who was a vassal
of HAROLD HARDRADA, King of Norway.
This brother, and this Norwegian king, joining
their forces against England, with Duke William's
help, won a fight in which the English
were commanded by two nobles, and then
besieged York. Harold, who was waiting for
the Normans on the coast at Hastings, with
his army, marched to Stamford Bridge upon
the river Derwent, to give them instant battle.

He found them drawn up in a hollow
circle, marked out by their shining spears.
Riding round this circle at a distance, to
survey it, he saw a brave figure on horseback,
in a blue mantle and a bright helmet, whose
horse suddenly stumbled, and threw him.

"Who is that man who has fallen? " Harold
asked of one of his captains.

"The King of Norway," he replied.

"He is a tall and stately king," said Harold,
"but his end is near."

He added, in a little while, " Go yonder to
my brother, and tell him, if he withdraw his
troops, he shall be Earl of Northumberland,
and rich and powerful in England."

The captain, rode away, and gave the
message.

"What will he give to my friend the King
of Norway? " asked the brother.

"Seven feet of earth for a grave," replied
the captain.

"No more ? " returned the brother, with
a smile.

"The King of Norway being a tall man,
perhaps a little more," replied the captain.

"Ride back! " said the brother, " and tell
King Harold to make ready for the fight!"

He did so, very soon. And such a fight
King Harold led against that force, that his
brother, and the Norwegian King, and every
chief of note in all their host, except the
Norwegian King's son, Olave, to whom he
gave honorable dismissal, were left dead upon
the field. The victorious army marched to
York. As King Harold sat there at the feast,
in the midst of all his company, a stir was
heard at the doors, and messengers all covered
with mire from riding far and fast through
broken ground came hurrying in, to report
that the Normans had landed in England.

The intelligence was true. They had been
tossed about by contrary winds; some of their
ships had been wrecked; a part of their own
shore, to which they had been driven back,
was strewn with Norman bodies; but they
had once more made sail, led by the Duke's
own galley, a present from his wife, upon the
prow whereof the figure of a golden boy stood
pointing towards England. By day, the banner