Harold : the Last of the Saxon Kings — Volume 12 eBook

“Thou hast heard the answer of England from those lips, Sire de Graville,” said Harold:  “mine but repeat and sanction it.  I will not give the crown to William in lieu for disgrace and an earldom.  I will not abide by the arbitrement of a Pope who has dared to affix a curse upon freedom.  I will not so violate the principle which in these realms knits king and people, as to arrogate to my single arm the right to dispose of the birthright of the living, and their races unborn; nor will I deprive the meanest soldier under my banner, of the joy and the glory to fight for his native land.  If William seek me, he shall find me, where war is the fiercest, where the corpses of his men lie the thickest on the plains, defending this standard, or rushing on his own.  And so, not Monk and Pope, but God in his wisdom, adjudge between us!”

“So be it,” said Mallet de Graville, solemnly, and his helmet re-closed over his face.  “Look to it, recreant knight, perjured Christian, and usurping King!  The bones of the Dead fight against thee.”

“And the fleshless hands of the Saints marshal the hosts of the living,” said the monk.

And so the messengers turned, without obeisance or salute, and strode silently away.

CHAPTER VI.

The rest of that day, and the whole of the next, were consumed by both armaments in the completion of their preparations.

William was willing to delay the engagement as long as he could; for he was not without hope that Harold might abandon his formidable position, and become the assailing party; and, moreover, he wished to have full time for his prelates and priests to inflame to the utmost, by their representations of William’s moderation in his embassy, and Harold’s presumptuous guilt in rejection, the fiery fanaticism of all enlisted under the gonfanon of the Church.

On the other hand, every delay was of advantage to Harold, in giving him leisure to render his entrenchments yet more effectual, and to allow time for such reinforcements as his orders had enjoined, or the patriotism of the country might arouse; but, alas! those reinforcements were scanty and insignificant; a few stragglers in the immediate neighborhood arrived, but no aid came from London, no indignant country poured forth a swarming population.  In fact, the very fame of Harold, and the good fortune that had hitherto attended his arms, contributed to the stupid lethargy of the people.  That he who had just subdued the terrible Norsemen, with the mighty Hardrada at their head, should succumb to those dainty “Frenchmen,” as they chose to call the Normans; of whom, in their insular ignorance of the continent, they knew but little, and whom they had seen flying in all directions at the return of Godwin; was a preposterous demand on the imagination.