the head of the Fyrd. Hard is it to tell the distress and the
marching and the camping, and the travail, and destruction of men, and
also of horses, which the English endured [147] till Harold came; and
then luckily came also the good old Leofric, and Bishop Alred the
peacemaker, and so strife was patched up--Gryffyth swore oaths of faith
to King Edward, and Algar was inlawed; and there for the nonce rests the
matter now. But well I ween that Gryffyth will never keep troth with the
English, and that no hand less strong than Harold's can keep in check a
spirit as fiery as Algar's: therefore did I wish that Harold might be
King."

"Well," quoth the honest Kent man, "I hope, nevertheless, that Algar,
will sow his wild oats, and leave the Walloons to grow the hemp for their
own halters; for, though he is not of the height of our Harold, he is a
true Saxon, and we liked him well enow when he ruled us. And how is our
Earl's brother Tostig esteemed by the Northmen? It must be hard to
please those who had Siward of the strong arm for their Earl before."

"Why, at first, when (at Siward's death in the wars for young Malcolm)
Harold secured to Tostig the Northumbrian earldom, Tostig went by his
brother's counsel, and ruled well and won favour. Of late I hear that
the Northmen murmur. Tostig is a man indeed dour and haughty."

After a few more questions and answers on the news of the day, Vebba rose
and said:

"Thanks for thy good fellowship; it is time for me now to be jogging
homeward. I left my ceorls and horses on the other side the river, and
must go after them. And now forgive me my bluntness, fellow-thegn, but
ye young courtiers have plenty of need for your mancuses, and when a
plain countryman like me comes sight-seeing, he ought to stand payment;
wherefore," here he took from his belt a great leathern purse,
"wherefore, as these outlandish birds and heathenish puddings must be
dear fare--"

"How!" said Godrith, reddening, "thinkest thou so meanly of us thegns of
Middlesex as to deem we cannot entertain thus humbly a friend from a
distance? Ye Kent men I know are rich. But keep your pennies to buy
stuffs for your wife, my friend."

The Kent man, seeing he had displeased his companion, did not press his
liberal offer,--put up his purse, and suffered Godrith to pay the
reckoning. Then, as the two thegns shook hands, he said:

"But I should like to have said a kind word or so to Earl Harold--for he
was too