it;—I come here to say, that, coveting
not your acquittal, fearing not your judgment, I pronounce
mine own doom. Cap of noble, and axe of warrior,
I lay aside for ever; barefooted, and alone, I go
hence to the Holy Sepulchre; there to assoil my soul,
and implore that grace which cannot come from man!
Harold, step forth in the place of Sweyn the first-born!
And ye prelates and peers, milites and ministers,
proceed to adjudge the living! To you, and to
England, he who now quits you is the dead!”
He gathered his robe of state over his breast as a
monk his gown, and looking neither to right nor to
left, passed slowly down the hall, through the crowd,
which made way for him in awe and silence; and it
seemed to the assembly as if a cloud had gone from
the face of day.
And Godwin still stood with his face covered by his
robe.
And Harold anxiously watched the faces of the assembly,
and saw no relenting.
And Gurth crept to Harold’s side.
And the gay Leofwine looked sad.
And the young Wolnoth turned pale and trembled.
And the fierce Tostig played with his golden chain.
And one low sob was heard, and it came from the breast
of Alred the meek accuser,—God’s
firm but gentle priest.
This memorable trial ended, as the reader will have
forseen, in the formal renewal of Sweyn’s outlawry,
and the formal restitution of the Earl Godwin and
his other sons to their lands and honours, with declarations
imputing all the blame of the late dissensions to the
foreign favourites, and sentences of banishment against
them, except only, by way of a bitter mockery, some
varlets of low degree, such as Humphrey Cock’s-foot,
and Richard son of Scrob. [92]
The return to power of this able and vigorous family
was attended with an instantaneous effect upon the
long-relaxed strings of the imperial government.
Macbeth heard, and trembled in his moors; Gryffyth
of Wales lit the fire-beacon on moel and craig.
Earl Rolf was banished, but merely as a nominal concession
to public opinion; his kinship to Edward sufficed
to restore him soon, not only to England, but to the
lordship of the Marches, and thither was he sent, with
adequate force, against the Welch, who had half-repossessed
themselves of the borders they harried. Saxon
prelates and abbots replaced the Norman fugitives;
and all were contented with the revolution, save the
King, for the King lost his Norman friends, and regained
his English wife.
In conformity with the usages of the times, hostages
of the loyalty and faith of Godwin were required and
conceded. They were selected from his own family;
and the choice fell on Wolnoth, his son, and Haco,
the son of Sweyn. As, when nearly all England
may be said to have repassed to the hands of Godwin,
it would have been an idle precaution to consign these
hostages to the keeping of Edward, it was settled,
after some discussion, that they should be placed in
the Court of the Norman Duke until such time as the
King, satisfied with the good faith of the family,
should authorise their recall:—Fatal hostage,
fatal ward and host!
