The Norman rode by the side of Harold, in the rear of the victorious
armament. The ships sailed to their havens, and Tostig departed to
his northern earldom.
"And now," said Harold, "I am at leisure to thank thee, brave Norman,
for more than thine aid in council and war;--at leisure now to turn to
the last prayer of Sweyn, and the often-shed tears of Githa my mother,
for Wolnoth the exile. Thou seest with thine own eyes that there is
no longer pretext or plea for thy Count to detain these hostages.
Thou shalt hear from Edward himself that he no longer asks sureties
for the faith of the House of Godwin; and I cannot think that Duke
William would have suffered thee to bring me over this news from the
dead if he were not prepared to do justice to the living."
"Your speech, Earl of Wessex, goes near to the truth. But, to speak
plainly and frankly, I think William, my lord, hath a keen desire to
welcome in person a chief so illustrious as Harold, and I guess that
he keeps the hostages to make thee come to claim them." The knight,
as he spoke, smiled gaily; but the cunning of the Norman gleamed in
the quick glance of his clear hazel eye.
"Fain must I feel pride at such wish, if you flatter me not," said
Harold; "and I would gladly myself, now the land is in peace, and my
presence not needful, visit a court of such fame. I hear high praise
from cheapman and pilgrim of Count William's wise care for barter and
trade, and might learn much from the ports of the Seine that would
profit the marts of the Thames. Much, too, I hear of Count William's
zeal to revive the learning of the Church, aided by Lanfranc the
Lombard; much I hear of the pomp of his buildings, and the grace of
his court. All this would I cheerfully cross the ocean to see; but
all this would but sadden my heart if I returned without Haco and
Wolnoth."
"I dare not speak so as to plight faith for the Duke," said the
Norman, who, though sharp to deceive, had that rein on his conscience
that it did not let him openly lie; "but this I do know, that there
are few things in his Countdom which my lord would not give to clasp
the right hand of Harold and feel assured of his friendship."
Though wise and farseeing, Harold was not suspicious;--no Englishman,
unless it were Edward himself, knew the secret pretensions of William
to the English throne; and he answered simply:
"It were well, indeed, both for Normandy and England, both against
foes and for trade, to be allied and well-liking. I will think over
your words, Sire de Graville, and it shall not be my fault if old
feuds be not forgotten, and those now in thy court be the last
hostages ever kept by the Norman for the faith of the Saxon."
With that he turned the discourse; and the aspiring and able envoy,
exhilarated by the hope of a successful mission, animated the way by
remarks--alternately lively and shrewd--which drew the brooding Earl
from those musings, which had now grown habitual to a mind once clear
and open as the day.
Harold had not miscalculated the enthusiasm his victories had excited.
Where he passed, all the towns poured forth their populations to see
and to hail him; and on arriving at the metropolis, the rejoicings in
his honour seemed to equal those which had greeted, at the accession
of Edward, the restoration of the line of Cerdic.
According to the barbarous custom of the age, the head of the
unfortunate sub-king, and the prow of his special war-ship, had been
sent to Edward as the trophies of conquest: but Harold's uniform
moderation respected the living. The race of Gryffyth [174] were re-
established on the tributary throne of that hero, in the persons of
his brothers, Blethgent and Rigwatle, "and they swore oaths," says the
graphic old chronicler, "and delivered hostages to the King and the
Earl that they would be faithful to him in all things, and be
everywhere ready for him, by water, and by land, and make such renders
from the land as had been done before to any other king."
Not long after this, Mallet de Graville returned to Normandy, with
gifts for William from King Edward, and special requests from that
prince, as well as from the Earl, to restore the hostages. But
Mallet's acuteness readily perceived, that in much Edward's mind had
been alienated from William. It was clear, that the Duke's marriage
and the pledges that had crowned the union were distasteful to the
asceticism of the saint king: and with Godwin's death, and Tostig's
absence from the court, seemed to have expired all Edward's bitterness
towards that powerful family of which Harold was now the head. Still,
as no subject out of the House of Cerdic had ever yet been elected to
the Saxon throne, there was no apprehension on Mallet's mind that in
Harold was the true rival to William's cherished aspirations. Though
Edward the Atheling was dead, his son Edgar lived, the natural heir to
the throne; and the Norman, (whose liege had succeeded to the Duchy at
the age of eight,) was not sufficiently cognisant of the invariable
custom of the Anglo-Saxons, to set aside, whether for kingdoms or for
earldoms, all claimants unfitted for rule by their tender years. He
could indeed perceive that the young Atheling's minority was in favour
of his Norman liege, and would render him but a weak defender of the
realm, and that there seemed no popular attachment to the infant
orphan of the Germanised exile: his name was never mentioned at the
court, nor had Edward acknowledged him as heir,--a circumstance which
he interpreted auspiciously for William. Nevertheless, it was clear
that, both at court and amongst the people, the Norman influence in
England was at the lowest ebb; and that the only man who could restore
it, and realise the cherished dreams of his grasping lord, was Harold
the all-powerful.