to retain his own, but to issue
his Herr-bann for the gathering of hosts far and near, even allies beyond
the seas. When I looked to London for the peaceful Witan, what saw I?
The largest armament that had been collected in this reign--that armament
headed by Norman knights. Was this the meeting where justice could be
done mine and me? Nevertheless, what was my offer? That I and my six
sons would attend, provided the usual sureties, agreeable to our laws,
from which only thieves [89] are excluded, were given that we should come
and go life-free and safe. Twice this offer was made, twice refused; and
so I and my sons were banished. We went;--we have returned!"

"And in arms," murmured Earl Rolf, son-in-law to that Count Eustace of
Boulogne, whose violence had been temperately and truly narrated. [90]

"And in arms," repeated Godwin: "true; in arms against the foreigners who
had thus poisoned the ear of our gracious King; in arms, Earl Rolf; and
at the first clash of those arms, Franks and foreigners have fled. We
have no need of arms now. We are amongst our countrymen, and no
Frenchman interposes between us and the ever gentle; ever generous nature
of our born King."

"Peers and proceres, chiefs of this Witan, perhaps the largest ever yet
assembled in man's memory, it is for you to decide whether I and mine, or
the foreign fugitives, caused the dissensions in these realms; whether
our banishment was just or not; whether in our return we have abused the
power we possessed. Ministers, on those swords by your sides there is
not one drop of blood! At all events, in submitting to you our fate, we
submit to our own laws and our own race. I am here to clear myself, on
my oath, of deed and thought of treason. There are amongst my peers as
king's thegns, those who will attest the same on my behalf, and prove the
facts I have stated, if they are not sufficiently notorious. As for my
sons, no crime can be alleged against them, unless it be a crime to have
in their veins that blood which flows in mine--blood which they have
learned from me to shed in defence of that beloved land to which they now
ask to be recalled."

The Earl ceased and receded behind his children, having artfully, by his
very abstinence from the more heated eloquence imputed to him often as a
fault and a wile, produced a powerful effect upon an audience already
prepared for his acquittal.

But now as, from the sons, Sweyn the eldest stepped forth;