But that wind which kept William in port brought another enemy of Harold’s to England with some three hundred galleys, Hardrada of Norway, who came to support the claims of Tostig, now his man, King Harold’s exiled brother, to Northumbria; for the Northumbrians had rebelled against him, and Harold had acquiesced in their choice of Morkere for lord.  Neither Morkere nor his brother Edwin, with their local forces, was able to meet Hardrada with success.  They attempted to enter York but at Fulford on the 20th September they were routed, and Hardrada held the great northern capital.

Meanwhile Harold had not been idle.  Gathering his scattered forces he marched north with amazing speed, covering the two hundred miles between London and Tadcaster in nine days, to meet this new foe; but this almost marvellous performance left the south undefended.  He entered York on September 25th, and on the same day, seven miles from the city at Stamford Bridge, he engaged the enemy and broke them utterly.  Three days later William landed at Pevensey.

What could Harold do?  He did all that a man could do.  William had landed at Pevensey upon Thursday, September 28th.  It is probable that Harold heard of it on the following Monday, October 2nd.  Immediately he set out for London, which by hard riding he reached, though probably with but a few men, on Friday, October 6th, an amazing achievement, only made possible by the great Roman road between York and London.  Upon the following Tuesday and Wednesday he was joined by his victorious forces from the north, who had thus repeated their unequalled feat and marched south again as they had north some two hundred miles in nine days.  Upon Wednesday, October 11th, Harold marched out of London at the head of this force, and by the evening of October 13th—­a day curiously enough to be kept later as the feast of St Edward the Confessor—­this heroic force had marched in forty-eight hours some sixty miles across country, and was in position upon that famous hill some two hours from the coast, overlooking the landing-place of William at Pevensey and the port he had seized at Hastings.  That great march has, I think, never been equalled by any British army before or since.

It might seem strange that William, who had landed at Pevensey upon the 28th of September, had not advanced at all from the sea-coast when Harold and his men appeared upon that hill after their great march from York upon October 13th.  But in fact William, Norman as he was, had a very clear idea of what he intended to do.  He left little to chance.  He landed his men at Pevensey, seized upon Hastings and beached his ships; then for a whole fortnight he awaited the hot and weary return of Harold.  Harold appeared upon the evening of October 13th.  Upon the following day, a Saturday, the battle William had expected was fought, Harold was slain and his heroic force destroyed.

The story of that day is well known.  Harold’s forces were drawn up upon the ridge where the ruins of Battle Abbey now stand.  William, upon the thirteenth, had marched out of Hastings and had occupied the hill to the east called Telham, where to-day stands Telham Court.  In those days probably no village or habitation of any sort occupied either of these heights; one of the chroniclers calls the battlefield the place of “the Hoar Apple Tree.”