at soldier, he was a consummate statesman too. For as he used
France to conquer Normandy, so he used Normandy to conquer France, and
both to conquer England. Kindly to submissive foes, he was pitiless to
stubborn opposition, and very dangerous to taunt. The town which hung
tanners' hides upon its walls was answered by the sight of bleeding
hands, and feet, and eyes, which had been torn from its prisoners and
hurled across the battlements. The king who jested of the candles for
a woman's churching, was answered by the blaze of a whole town. A
comet flamed across the sky of Europe in the year of the great Duke's
conquest. Amid fire and tumult he was crowned at Westminster. Upon the
glowing ashes of Mantes he met his death-wound. Through burning
streets he was borne to his burial. He was not only the strongest of
the dukes of Normandy, he was also one of the world's greatest men,
whose work was not only thorough at the moment, but effective for all
time; whose purpose was fixed, and whose iron will none could gainsay.
He rose above the coarse, laughter-loving, brutal, treacherous, Norman
barons of his time, by the force of his own personal genius, and the
acuteness of his own strong intellect. If it had necessitated a web of
the subtlest intrigue to get together the vast host that was to
conquer England, it needed a vigorous and dauntless personality no
less amazing to keep together the fleet and army while they waited
wearily for the wind, until Harold's own fleet (the one safety of
England then, as ever) had dispersed, until the right moment came, and
all his barons and their men-at-arms rushed eagerly on board, carrying
their barrels of wine, their coats of mail, and helmets, and lines of
spears, and spits of meat, and stacks of swords, as is recorded in the
Bayeux Tapestry. With him went twenty ships and a hundred knights
sent by the Abbot of St. Ouen. Another ship that must have carried
especial prayers with her from Rouen was the "Mora," given by his wife
Matilda, with a boy carved upon her stern-post, blowing his horn
towards the cliffs of Pevensey.[17] By the lantern on her mast the
seven hundred transport galleys sailed at night, and early in the next
dawn they landed, archers first, then knights and horses, and marched
on to Hastings.

[Footnote 16: "Justae fuit staturae, immensae corpulentiae; facie
fera, fronte capillis nuda, roboris ingentis in lacertis, magnae
dignitatis sedens et stans, quanquam obesitas ven