death, and the wrong done me by Harold." "Well, sire," replied the courtier, "do not be angry about a thing which can be mended; for Edward's death there is no remedy, but for Harold's wrong there is. Yours is the good right, and you have valiant knights; undertake, then, boldly-that which is boldly undertaken is half accomplished. Thierry's History, p. 59.

PREPARATIONS FOR THE INVASION.

The pope (formerly Anselm, Bishop of Lucca, who had assumed the name of Alexander) having duly examined the pretensions of William and Harold, delivered a standard to William as an auspicious presage of the kingdom; on receiving which he summoned an assembly of his nobles, at Lillebourne,* for the purpose of ascertaining their sentiments on this attempt. And when he had confirmed, by splendid promises, all who approved his design, he appointed them to prepare shipping, in proportion to the extent of their possessions. Thus they departed at that time; and in the month of August re-assembled in a body at St. Vallery. Collecting, therefore, ships from every quarter, they awaited the propitious gale which was to carry them to their destination. When this delayed blowing for several days, the common soldiers, as is generally the case, began to mutter in their tents, "that the man must be mad who wished to subjugate a foreign country; that God opposed him who withheld the wind; that his father purposed a similar attempt, and was in like manner frustrated; that it was the fate of that family to aspire to things beyond their reach, and find God for their adversary." In consequence of these things, which were enough to enervate the force of the brave, being publicly noised abroad, the duke held a council with his chiefs, and ordered the body of St. Vallery to be brought forth, and to be exposed to the open air, for the purpose of imploring a wind. No delay now interposed, but the wished-for gale filled their sails. A joyful clamour then arising, summoned every one to their ships. The duke himself first launching from the continent into the deep, awaited the rest at anchor, nearly in mid-channel. All then assembled round the crimson sail of the admiral's ship, and proceeded to the opposite shore.

William of Malmsbury's Chronicle (Bohn's Edition), p. 274.

*The remains of this castle, in which all Englishmen must feel an interest, are still to be seen on the bank of the Seine, nearly opposite Quillebœuf.

† He called to his aid not only his subjects of Normandy, but men from Maine and Anjou, from Foictou and Brittany, from the country of the French king and from Flanders, from Aquitaine and from Burgundy, from Piedmont, beyond the Alps, and from the German countries beyond the Rhine. The idle adventurers of one half of Europe flocked to his standard. Some of these men demanded regular pay in money; others, nothing but a passage across the channel, and all the booty they might take; some of the chiefs demanded territory in England, while others simply bargained to have a rich English wife allotted to them. William sold, beforehand, a bishopric in England for a ship and twenty men-at-arms.

C. MacFarlane.

THE INVASION.

At day-break, on the 27th of September, 1066, the sun, which until that morning had been obscured by clouds, arose in full splendour. The camp was immediately broken up; every preparation for immediate embarkation was made with zeal, and with no less alacrity, and a few hours before sun-set the entire fleet weighed anchor. Four hundred ships with large masts and sails, and more than a thousand transport boats, manœuvred to gain the open sea, amidst the noise of clarions and the wild shout proceeding from sixty thousand warriors.

William's vessel (presented to him for the occasion by his wife, Matilda, daughter of Baldwin, Earl of Flanders) led the van, bearing at the mast-head the banner sent by the pope, and a cross upon its flag. Its sails were of different colours; and the three lions, the Norman ensign, were painted on them in several places. At the prow was carved the figure of a boy, with his bow bent, and an arrow ready to speed. The ship's lanterns were affixed to the mast, a precaution essential for the passage by night, to serve as a beacon, and as a rallying point for the fleet. This vessel, being a better sailer than the rest, preceded them during the whole day, and at night left them far behind. In the morning the duke sent a sailor to the top of the mainmast, to see if the other vessels were approaching. "I see nothing but sea and sky," said the man, and anchor was immediately cast. William affected to be gay; and lest anxiety and fear should seize upon the crew, he ordered a sumptuous repast to be served up, with wines strongly spiced. The sailor went up again, and said, this time, he descried four vessels; and the third time he ascended, he cried out, "I see a forest of masts and sails." In a few hours after this the united fleet anchored off Pevensey, on the Sussex coast.

Thierry's History, p.64.

THE LANDING.

The soldiers leaped joyfully upon English ground at intervals along the shore. It happened as the duke left his ship that he fell upon his face, making his nose somewhat bloody upon the beach, and grasping the earth with his outstretched hands. Many of the bystanders feared the consequences of so unlucky a presage, and stood whispering together; but the duke's sewer, William Fitz Osbert, a man of great merit and much ready wit, being at hand, boldly rallied the failing courage of the waverers with a word— "Cease men," he said, "to interpret this as a misfortune, for, by my troth, it is a token of prosperity; for, lo! he hath embraced England with both his hands, and sealed it to his posterity with his own blood, and thus, by the foreshowing of Divine Providence, is he destined effectually to win it.”* Chronicle of Battel Abbey.

* Hume, and many other historians, have given this speech to William; but there is such an air of truth throughout the chronicle that it is worthy consideration.

The archers landed first; they wore short habits, and had their hair shaven off. The cavaliers landed next, clad in coats of mail, and wearing helmets of polished iron, nearly of a conical shape; armed also with long and heavy lances, and with straight twoedged swords. After them came the workmen of the army, pioneers, carpenters, and smiths, who unloaded on the shore, piece by piece, three wooden castles, framed and prepared beforehand. Thierry's History.

THE BAYEUX TAPESTRY.

This celebrated tapestry (supposed to have been worked by the captive Saxon ladies for the queen of the conqueror)† is now in the hotel of the Prefecture, at Bayeux. It is a piece of brownish linen cloth, twenty-two inches broad, and two hundred and fourteen feet in length, worked with woollen thread of different colours, which are as bright and distinct, and the letters of the superscription as legible as if of yesterday. A complete set of coloured fac-simile drawings, by an accomplished artist (the late Mr. Charles Stothard), have been published in the "Vetusta Monumenta."

The first of the seventy-two compartments into which the roll of needlework is divided, is inscribed "Edwardus Rex." The crowned king, seated on a chair of state, with a sceptre, is giving audience to two persons in attendance; and this is held to represent Harold departing for Normandy. The second shows Harold and his attendants, with hounds, on a journey. He bears the hawk on his hand, the distinguishing mark of nobility. The inscription purports that the figures represent Harold, Duke of the English, and his soldiers, journeying to Bosham. The third is inscribed "Ecclesia,' and exhibits a Saxon church, with two bending figures about to enter. The fourth compartment represents Harold embarking; and the fifth shows him on his voyage. The sixth is his coming to anchor, previous to disembarking on the coast of Normandy. The seventh and eighth compartments exhibit the seizure of Harold by the Count of Ponthieu. The ninth shows Harold remonstrating with Guy, the count, upon his unjust seizure.

The compartments from ten to twenty-five, inclusive, exhibit various circumstances connected with the sojourn of Harold at the court of William. Mr. Stothard has justly observed, "That whoever designed this historical record was intimately acquainted with whatever was passing on the Norman side, is evidently proved by that minute attention to familiar and local circumstances evinced

† Matilda did not live long enough to complete her embroidered chronicle of the conquest of England. The outline of the pattern traced on the bare canvas in several places, in readiness for her patient needle, affords, after a lapse of nearly eight centuries, a moral comment on the uncertainty of human life-the vanity of human undertakings, which, in the aggregate, are arrested in full career by the hand of death, and remain, like the Bayeux tapestry, unfinished fragments.

Agnes Strickland.

in introducing, solely in the Norman party, characters certainly not essential to the great events connected with the story of the work." The twenty-sixth compartment represents Harold swearing fidelity to William, with each hand on a shrine of relics. All the historians appear to be agreed that Harold did take an oath to William to support his claims to the crown of England, whatever might have been the circumstances under which that oath was extorted from him. The twenty-seventh compartment exhibits Harold's return to England; and the twenty-eighth shows him on his journey after landing. The twenty-ninth compartment has an inscription, purporting that Harold comes to Edward the King. The thirtieth shows the funeral procession of the deceased Edward to Westminster Abbey, a hand out of Heaven pointing to that building as a monument of his piety. The inscription says, "Here the body of Edward the King is borne to the church of St. Peter the Apostle." The thirty-first and thirty-second compartments exhibit the sickness and death of the Confessor. The thirty-third shows the crown offered to Harold. The thirty-fourth presents us Harold on the throne, with Stigant, the archbishop. Then comes the compartment representing the comet (which was held to presage the defeat of Harold); and that is followed by one showing William giving orders for the building of ships for the invasion of England. We have then compartments, in which men are cutting down trees, building ships, dragging along vessels, and bearing arms and armour. The forty-third has an inscription, "Here they draw a car with wine and arms." After a compartment with William on horseback, we have the fleet on its voyage. The inscription to this recounts that he passes the sea with a great fleet, and comes to Pevensey. Three other compartments show the disembarkation of horses, the hasty march of cavalry, and the seizure and slaughter of animals for the hungry invaders. The forty-ninth compartment bears the inscription, "This is Wadard.' Who this personage on horseback, thus honoured, could be, was a great puzzle, till the name was found in "Doomsday Book" as a holder of land in six English counties, under Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, the conqueror's half-brother. This is one of the circumstances exhibiting the minute knowledge of the designers of this needlework. The fiftieth and fifty-first compartments present us the cooking and feasting of the Norman army. We have then the dining of the chiefs; the duke about to dine, whilst Odo blesses the food; and the duke sitting under a canopy. The fifty-fifth shows him holding a banner, and giving orders for the construction of a camp at Hastings. Six other compartments show us the burning of a house with firebrands, the march out of Hastings, the advance to the battle, and the anxious questioning by William of his spies and scouts as to the approach of the army of Harold. The sixty-third presents a messenger announcing to Harold that the army of William is near at hand. The sixty-fourth bears an inscription, that Duke William addresses his soldiers that they should prepare thein

selves boldly and skilfully for battle. We have then six compartments, each exhibiting some scene of the terrible conflict. The seventy-first shows us the death of Harold. The tapestry abruptly ends with the figures of flying soldiers.*

Knight's Old England, p 83.

THE BATTLE OF HASTINGS.

On the ground which afterward bore, and still bears, the name of Battle, the Anglo-Saxon lines occupied a long chain of hills, fortified with a rampart of stakes and osier hurdles. In the night of the 13th of October, William announced to the Normans that the next day would be the day of battle. The priests and monks, who had followed the invading army in great numbers, being attracted, like the soldiers, by the hope of booty, assembled together to offer up prayers and sing litanies, while the fighting men were preparing their arms. The soldiery employed the time which remained to them after this first care in confessing their sins and receiving the sacrament. In the other army the night was passed in quite a different manner; the Saxons diverted themselves with great noise, and sung their old national songs, around their watchfires, while they emptied the horns of beer and of wine.

In the morning the Bishop of Bayeux, who was a son of William's mother, celebrated mass in the Norman camp, and gave a blessing to the soldiers; he was armed with a hauberk under his pontifical habit: he then mounted a large white horse, took a baton of command in his hand, and drew up the cavalry into line.† The army was divided into three columns of attack: in the first were the soldiers from the county of Boulogne and from Ponthieu, with most of the adventurers who had engaged personally for pay; the second comprised the auxiliaries from Brittany, Maine, and Poitou; William himself commanded the third, composed of the

*When Napoleon was preparing to invade England, he caused this invaluable record to be removed from Bayeux to the national museum at Paris, where it was exhibited to revive the recollection of the conquest by William of Normandy.

Having arrived at a hill called Hechelande, situated in the direction of Hastings, while they were helping one another on with their armour, there was brought forth a coat of mail for the duke to put on, and, by accident, it was handed to him the wrong side foremost. Those who stood by and saw this cursed it as an unfortunate omen; but the duke's sewer again bade them be of good cheer, and declared that this also was a token of good fortune-namely, that those things which had before kept their ground were about fully to submit themselves to him. The duke, perfectly uninoved, put on the mail with a placid countenance, and uttered these memorable words:-"I know, my dearest friends, that if I had any confidence in omens I ought on no account to go to the battle to-day; but, committing myself trustfully to my Creator in every matter, I have given no heed to omens; neither have I ever loved sorcerers. Wherefore, now, secure of His aid, and in order to strengthen the hands and courage of you, who, for my sake, are about to engage in this conflict, I make a vow, that upon this place of battle I will found a suitable free monastery, for the salvation of you all, and especially of those who fall; and this I will do in honour of God and his saints, to the end that the servants of God may be succoured; that even as I shall be enabled to acquire for myself a propitious asylum, so it may be freely offered to all my followers."

Chronicle of Battel Abbey.