Harold passed into the Queen's ante-chamber. Here the attendance was
small and select compared with the crowds which we shall see presently
in the ante-room to the King's closet; for here came chiefly the more
learned ecclesiastics, attracted instinctively by the Queen's own
mental culture, and few indeed were they at that day (perhaps the most
illiterate known in England since the death of Alfred [117]); and here
came not the tribe of impostors, and the relic-venders, whom the
infantine simplicity and lavish waste of the Confessor attracted.
Some four or five priests and monks, some lonely widow, some orphan
child, humble worth, or protected sorrow, made the noiseless levee of
the sweet, sad Queen.
The groups turned, with patient eyes, towards the Earl as he emerged
from that chamber, which it was rare indeed to quit unconsoled, and
marvelled at the flush in his cheek; and the disquiet on his brow; but
Harold was dear to the clients of his sister; for, despite his
supposed indifference to the mere priestly virtues (if virtues we call
them) of the decrepit time, his intellect was respected by yon learned
ecclesiastics; and his character, as the foe of all injustice, and the
fosterer of all that were desolate, was known to yon pale-eyed widow
and yon trembling orphan.
In the atmosphere of that quiet assembly, the Earl seemed to recover
his kindly temperament, and he paused to address a friendly or a
soothing word to each; so that when he vanished, the hearts there felt
more light; and the silence hushed before his entrance, was broken by
many whispers in praise of the good Earl.
Descending a staircase without the walls--as even in royal halls the
principal staircases were then--Harold gained a wide court, in which
loitered several house-carles [118] and attendants, whether of the
King or the visitors; and, reaching the entrance of the palace, took
his way towards the King's rooms, which lay near, and round, what is
now called "The Painted Chamber," then used as a bedroom by Edward on
state occasions.
And now he entered the ante-chamber of his royal brother-in-law.
Crowded it was, but rather seemed it the hall of a convent than the
ante-room of a king. Monks, pilgrims, priests, met his eye in every
nook; and not there did the Earl pause to practise the arts of popular
favour. Passing erect through the midst, he beckoned forth the
officer, in attendance at the extreme end, who, after an interchange
of whispers, ushered him into the royal presence. The monks and the
priests, gazing towards the door which had closed on his stately form,
said to each other:
"The King's Norman favourites at least honoured the Church."
"That is true," said an abbot; "and an it were not for two things, I
should love the Norman better than the Saxon."
"What are they, my father?" asked an aspiring young monk.
"Inprinis," quoth the abbot, proud of the one Latin word he thought he
knew, but, that, as we see, was an error; "they cannot speak so as to
be understood, and I fear me much they incline to mere carnal
learning."
Here there was a sanctified groan:
"Count William himself spoke to me in Latin!" continued the abbot,
raising his eyebrows.
"Did he?--Wonderful!" exclaimed several voices. "And what did you
answer, holy father?"
"Marry," said the abbot solemnly, "I replied, Inprinis."
"Good!" said the young monk, with a look of profound admiration.
"Whereat the good Count looked puzzled--as I meant him to be:--a
heinous fault, and one intolerant to the clergy, that love of profane
tongues! And the next thing against your Norman is (added the abbot,
with a sly wink), that he is a close man, who loves not his stoup;
now, I say, that a priest never has more hold over a sinner than when
he makes the sinner open his heart to him."
"That's clear!" said a fat priest, with a lubricate and shining nose.
"And how," pursued the abbot triumphantly, "can a sinner open his
heavy heart until you have given him something to lighten it? Oh,
many and many a wretched man have I comforted spiritually over a
flagon of stout ale; and many a good legacy to the Church hath come
out of a friendly wassail between watchful shepherd and strayed sheep!
But what hast thou there?" resumed the abbot, turning to a man, clad
in the lay garb of a burgess of London, who had just entered the room,
followed by a youth, bearing what seemed a coffer, covered with a fine
linen cloth.
"Holy father!" said the burgess, wiping his forehead, "it is a
treasure so great, that I trow Hugoline, the King's treasurer, will
scowl at me for a year to come, for he likes to keep his own grip on
the King's gold."
At this indiscreet observation, the abbot, the monks, and all the
priestly bystanders looked grim and gloomy, for each had his own
special design upon the peace of poor Hugoline, the treasurer, and
liked not to see him the prey of a layman.
"Inprinis!" quoth the abbot, puffing out the word with great scorn;
"thinkest thou, son of Mammon, that our good King sets his pious heart
on gew-gaw, and gems, and such vanities? Thou shouldst take the goods
to Count Baldwin of Flanders; or Tostig, the proud Earl's proud son."
"Marry!" said the cheapman, with a smile; "my treasure will find small
price with Baldwin the scoffer, and Tostig the vain! Nor need ye look
at me so sternly, my fathers; but rather vie with each other who shall
win this wonder of wonders for his own convent; know, in a word, that
it is the right thumb of St. Jude, which a worthy man bought at Rome
for me, for 3000 lb. weight of silver; and I ask but 500 lb. over the
purchase for my pains and my fee." [119]
"Humph!" said the abbot.
"Humph!" said the aspiring young monk; the rest gathered wistfully
round the linen cloth.
A fiery exclamation of wrath and disdain was here heard; and all
turning, saw a tall, fierce-looking thegn, who had found his way into
that group, like a hawk in a rookery.
"Dost thou tell me, knave," quoth the thegn, in a dialect that bespoke
him a Dane by origin, with the broad burr still retained in the north;
"Dost thou tell me that the King will waste his gold on such
fooleries, while the fort built by Canute at the flood of the Humber
is all fallen into ruin, without a man in steel jacket to keep watch
on the war fleets of Swede and Norwegian?"
"Worshipful minister," replied the cheapman, with some slight irony in
his tone, "these reverend fathers will tell thee that the thumb of St.
Jude is far better aid against Swede and Norwegian than forts of stone
and jackets of steel; nathless, if thou wantest jackets of steel, I
have some to sell at a fair price, of the last fashion, and helms with
long nose-pieces, as are worn by the Normans."
"The thumb of a withered old saint," cried the Dane, not heeding the
last words, "more defence at the mouth of the Humber than crenellated
castles and mailed men!"
"Surely, naught son," said the abbot, looking shocked, and taking part
with the cheapman. "Dost thou not remember that, in the pious and
famous council of 1014, it was decreed to put aside all weapons of
flesh against thy heathen countrymen, and depend alone on St. Michael
to fight for us? Thinkest thou that the saint would ever suffer his
holy thumb to fall into the hands of the Gentiles?--never! Go to,
thou art not fit to have conduct of the King's wars. Go to, and
repent, my son, or the King shall hear of it."
"Ah, wolf in sheep's clothing!" muttered the Dane, turning on his
heel; "if thy monastery were but built on the other side the Humber!"
The cheapman heard him, and smiled. While such the scene in the ante-
room, we follow Harold into the King's presence.
On entering, he found there a man in the prime of life, and though
richly clad in embroidered gonna, and with gilt ateghar at his side,
still with the loose robe, the long moustache, and the skin of the
throat and right hand punctured with characters and devices, which
proved his adherence to the fashions of the Saxon [120]. And Harold's
eye sparkled, for in this guest he recognized the father of Aldyth,
Earl Algar, son of Leofric. The two nobles exchanged grave
salutations, and each eyed the other wistfully.
The contrast between the two was striking. The Danish race were men
generally of larger frame and grander mould than the Saxon [121]; and
though in all else, as to exterior, Harold was eminently Saxon, yet,
in common with his brothers, he took from the mother's side the lofty
air and iron frame of the old kings of the sea. But Algar, below the
middle height, though well set, was slight in comparison with Harold.
His strength was that which men often take rather from the nerve than
the muscle; a strength that belongs to quick tempers and restless
energies. His light blue eye, singularly vivid and glittering; his
quivering lip, the veins swelling at each emotion on the fair white
temples; the long yellow hair, bright as gold, and resisting, in its
easy curls, all attempts to curb it into the smooth flow most in
fashion; the nervous movements of the gesture; the somewhat sharp and
hasty tones of the voice; all opposed, as much as if the two men were
of different races, the steady, deep eye of Harold, his composed mien,
sweet and majestic, his decorous locks parted on the king-like front,
with their large single curl where they touched the shoulder.
Intelligence and will were apparent in both the men; but the
intelligence of one was acute and rapid, that of the other profound
and steadfast; the will of one broke in flashes of lightning, that of
the other was calm as the summer sun at noon.
"Thou art welcome, Harold," said the King, with less than his usual
listlessness, and with a look of relief as the Earl approached him.
"Our good Algar comes to us with a suit well worthy consideration,
though pressed somewhat hotly, and evincing too great a desire for
goods worldly; contrasting in this his most laudable father our well-
beloved Leofric, who spends his substance in endowing monasteries and
dispensing alms; wherefore he shall receive a hundred-fold in the
treasure-house above."
"A good interest, doubtless, my lord the King," said Algar; quickly,
"but one that is not paid to his heirs; and the more need, if my
father (whom I blame not for doing as he lists with his own) gives all
he hath to the monks--the more need, I say, to take care that his son
shall be enabled to follow his example. As it is, most noble King, I
fear me that Algar, son of Leofric, will have nothing to give. In
brief, Earl Harold," continued Algar, turning to his fellow-thegn--"in
brief, thus stands the matter. When our lord the King was first
graciously pleased to consent to rule in England, the two chiefs who
most assured his throne were thy father and mine: often foes, they
laid aside feud and jealousy for the sake of the Saxon line. Now,
since then, thy father hath strung earldom to earldom, like links in a
coat-mail. And, save Northumbria and Mercia; well-nigh all England
falls to him and his sons: whereas my father remains what he was, and
my father's son stands landless and penceless. In thine absence the
King was graciously pleased to bestow on me thy father's earldom; men
say that I ruled it well. Thy father returns, and though" (here
Algar's eyes shot fire, and his hand involuntarily rested on his
ateghar) "I could have held it, methinks, by the strong hand, I gave
it up at my father's prayer and the King's hest, with a free heart.
Now, therefore, I come to my lord, and I ask, 'What lands and what
lordships canst thou spare in broad England to Algar, once Earl of
Wessex, and son to the Leofric whose hand smoothed the way to thy
throne?' My lord the King is pleased to preach to me contempt of the
world; thou dost not despise the world, Earl of the East Angles,--what
sayest thou to the heir of Leofric?"
"That thy suit is just," answered Harold, calmly, "but urged with
small reverence."
Earl Algar bounded like a stag that the arrow hath startled.
"It becomes thee, who hast backed thy suits with warships and mail, to
talk of reverence, and rebuke one whose fathers reigned over earldoms
[122], when thine were, no doubt, ceorls at the plough. But for Edric
Streone, the traitor and low-born, what had been Wolnoth, thy
grandsire?"
So rude and home an assault in the presence of the King, who, though
personally he loved Harold in his lukewarm way, yet, like all weak
men, was not displeased to see the strong split their strength against
each other, brought the blood into Harold's cheek; but he answered
calmly:
"We live in a land, son of Leofric, in which birth, though not
disesteemed, gives of itself no power in council or camp. We belong
to a land where men are valued for what they are, not for what their
dead ancestors might have been. So has it been for ages in Saxon
England, where my fathers, through Godwin, as thou sayest, might have
been ceorls; and so, I have heard, it is in the land of the martial
Danes, where my fathers, through Githa, reigned on the thrones of the
North."
"Thou dost well," said Algar, gnawing his lip, "to shelter thyself on
the spindle side, but we Saxons of pure descent think little of your
kings of the North, pirates and idolaters, and eaters of horseflesh;
but enjoy what thou hast, and let Algar have his clue."
"It is for the King, not his servant, to answer the prayer of Algar,"
said Harold, withdrawing to the farther end of the room.
Algar's eye followed him, and observing that the King was fast sinking
into one of the fits of religious reverie in which he sought to be
inspired with a decision, whenever his mind was perplexed, he moved
with a light step to Harold, put his band on his shoulder, and
whispered:
"We do ill to quarrel with each other--I repent me of hot words--
enough. Thy father is a wise man, and sees far--thy father would have
us friends. Be it so. Hearken my daughter Aldyth is esteemed not the
least fair of the maidens in England; I will give her to thee as thy
wife, and as thy morgen gift, thou shalt will for me from the King the
earldom forfeited by thy brother Sweyn, now parcelled out amongst sub-
earls and thegns--easy enow to control. By the shrine of St. Alban,
dost thou hesitate, man?"
"No, not an instant," said Harold, stung to the quick. "Not, couldst
thou offer me all Mercia as her dower, would I wed the daughter of
Algar; and bend my knee, as a son to a wife's father, to the man who
despises my lineage, while he truckles to my power."
Algar's face grew convulsed with rage; but without saying a word to
the Earl he strode back to Edward, who now with vacant eyes looked up
from the rosary over which he had been bending, and said abruptly:
"My lord the King, I have spoken as I think it becomes a man who
knows his own claims, and believes in the gratitude of princes. Three
days will I tarry in London for your gracious answer; on the fourth I
depart. May the saints guard your throne, and bring around it its
best defence, the thegn-born satraps whose fathers fought with Alfred
and Athelstan. All went well with merrie England till the hoof of the
Dane King broke the soil, and mushrooms sprung up where the oak-trees
fell."
When the son of Leofric had left the chamber, the King rose wearily
and said in Norman French, to which language he always yearningly
returned when with those who could speak it:
"Beau frere and bien aime, in what trifles must a king pass his life!
And, all this while, matters grave and urgent demand me. Know that
Eadmer, the cheapman, waits without, and hath brought me, dear and
good man, the thumb of St. Jude! What thought of delight! And this
unmannerly son of strife, with his jay's voice and wolf's eyes,
screaming at me for earldoms!--oh the folly of man! Naught, naught,
very naught!"
"Sir and King," said Harold; "it ill becomes me to arraign your pious
desires, but these relics are of vast cost; our coasts are ill
defended, and the Dane yet lays claim to your kingdom. Three thousand
pounds of silver and more does it need to repair even the old wall of
London and Southweorc."
"Three thousand pounds!" cried the King; "thou art mad, Harold! I
have scarce twice that sum in the treasury; and besides the thumb of
St. Jude, I daily expect the tooth of St. Remigius--the tooth of St.
Remigius!"
Harold sighed. "Vex not yourself, my lord, I will see to the defences
of London. For, thanks to your grace, my revenues are large, while my
wants are simple. I seek you now to pray your leave to visit my
earldom. My lithsmen murmur at my absence, and grievances, many and
sore, have arisen in my exile."
The King stared in terror; and his look was that of a child when about
to be left in the dark.
"Nay, nay; I cannot spare thee, beau frere. Thou curbest all these
stiff thegns--thou leavest me time for the devout; moreover, thy
father, thy father, I will not be left to thy father! I love him
not!"
"My father," said Harold, mournfully, "returns to his own earldom; and
of all our House you will have but the mild face of your queen by your
side!"
The King's lip writhed at that hinted rebuke, or implied consolation.
"Edith the Queen," he said, after a slight pause, "is pious and good;
and she hath never gainsaid my will, and she hath set before her as a
model the chaste Susannah, as I, unworthy man, from youth upward, have
walked in the pure steps of Joseph [123]. But," added the King, with
a touch of human feeling in his voice, "canst thou not conceive,
Harold, thou who art a warrior, what it would be to see ever before
thee the face of thy deadliest foe--the one against whom all thy
struggles of life and death had turned into memories of hyssop and
gall?"
"My sister!" exclaimed Harold, in indignant amaze, "My sister thy
deadliest foe! She who never once murmured at neglect, disgrace--she
whose youth hath been consumed in prayers for thee and thy realm--my
sister! O King, I dream?"
"Thou dreamest not, carnal man," said the King, peevishly. "Dreams
are the gifts of the saints, and are not granted to such as thou!
Dost thou think that, in the prune of my manhood, I could have youth
and beauty forced on my sight, and hear man's law and man's voice say,
'They are thine, and thine only,' and not feel that war was brought to
my hearth, and a snare set on my bed, and that the fiend had set watch
on my soul? Verily, I tell thee, man of battle, that thou hast known
no strife as awful as mine, and achieved no victory as hard and as
holy. And now, when my beard is silver, and the Adam of old is
expelled at the precincts of death; now, thinkest thou, that I can be
reminded of the strife and temptation of yore, without bitterness and
shame; when days were spent in fasting, and nights in fierce prayer;
and in the face of woman I saw the devices of Satan?"
Edward coloured as he spoke, and his voice trembled with the accents
of what seemed hate. Harold gazed on him mutely, and felt that at
last he had won the secret that had ever perplexed him, and that in
seeking to be above the humanity of love, the would-be saint had
indeed turned love into the hues of hate--a thought of anguish, and a
memory of pain.
The King recovered himself in a few moments, and said, with some
dignity, "But God and his saints alone should know the secrets of the
household. What I have said was wrung from me. Bury it in thy heart.
Leave me, then, Harold, sith so it must be. Put thine earldom in
order, attend to the monasteries and the poor, and return soon. As
for Algar, what sayest thou?"
"I fear me," answered the large-souled Harold, with a victorious
effort of justice over resentment, "that if you reject his suit you
will drive him into some perilous extremes. Despite his rash and
proud spirit, he is brave against foes, and beloved by the ceorls, who
oft like best the frank and hasty spirit. Wherefore some power and
lordship it were wise to give, without dispossessing others, and not
more wise than due, for his father served you well."
"And hath endowed more houses of God than any earl in the kingdom.
But Algar is no Leofric. We will consider your words and heed them.
Bless you, beau frere! and send in the cheapman. The thumb of St.
Jude! What a gift to my new church of St. Peter! The thumb of St.
Jude! Non nobis gloria! Sancta Maria! The thumb of St. Jude!"