Nearly all chroniclers (even, with scarce an
exception, those most favouring the Normans), concur in the abilities and
merits of Harold as a king.

[229] "Vit. Harold. Chron. Ang. Norm." ii, 243.

[230] Hoveden.

[231] Malmesbury.

[232] Supposed to be our first port for shipbuilding.--FOSBROOKE, p.
320.

[233] Pax.

[234] Some of the Norman chroniclers state that Robert, Archbishop of
Canterbury, who had been expelled from England at Godwin's return, was
Lanfranc's companion in this mission; but more trustworthy authorities
assure us that Robert had been dead some years before, not long surviving
his return into Normandy.

[235] Saxon Chronicle.

[236] Saxon Chronicle.--"When it was the nativity of St. Mary, then were
the men's provisions gone, and no man could any longer keep them there."

[237] It is curious to notice how England was represented as a country
almost heathen; its conquest was regarded quite as a pious, benevolent
act of charity--a sort of mission for converting the savages. And all
this while England was under the most slavish ecclesiastical domination,
and the priesthood possessed a third of its land! But the heart of
England never forgave that league of the Pope with the Conqueror; and the
seeds of the Reformed Religion were trampled deep into the Saxon soil by
the feet of the invading Norman.

[238] WILLIAM OF POITIERS.--The naive sagacity of this bandit argument,
and the Norman's contempt for Harold's deficiency in "strength of mind,"
are exquisite illustrations of character.

[239] Snorro Sturleson.

[240] Does any Scandinavian scholar know why the trough was so
associated with the images of Scandinavian witchcraft? A witch was
known, when seen behind, by a kind of trough-like shape; there must be
some symbol, of very ancient mythology, in this superstition!

[241] Snorro Sturleson.

[242] Snorro Sturleson.

[243] So Thierry translates the word: others, the Land-ravager. In
Danish, the word is Land-ode, in Icelandic, Land-eydo.--Note to Thierry's
"Hist. of the Conq. of England," book iii. vol. vi. p. 169 (of Hazlitt's
translation).

[244] Snorro Sturleson.

[245] See Snorro Sturleson for this parley between Harold in person and
Tostig. The account differs from the Saxon chroniclers, but in this
particular instance is likely to be as accurate.

[246] Snorro Sturleson.

[247] Snorro Sturleson.

[248] Sharon Turner's Anglo-Saxons, vol. ii. p. 396.