ld do? He did all that a man could do. William had
landed at Pevensey upon Thursday, September 28th. It is probable that
Harold heard of it on the following Monday, October 2nd. Immediately
he set out for London, which by hard riding he reached, though
probably with but a few men, on Friday, October 6th, an amazing
achievement, only made possible by the great Roman road between York
and London. Upon the following Tuesday and Wednesday he was joined by
his victorious forces from the north, who had thus repeated their
unequalled feat and marched south again as they had north some two
hundred miles in nine days. Upon Wednesday, October 11th, Harold
marched out of London at the head of this force, and by the evening of
October 13th--a day curiously enough to be kept later as the feast of
St Edward the Confessor--this heroic force had marched in forty-eight
hours some sixty miles across country, and was in position upon that
famous hill some two hours from the coast, overlooking the landing-
place of William at Pevensey and the port he had seized at Hastings.
That great march has, I think, never been equalled by any British army
before or since.

It might seem strange that William, who had landed at Pevensey upon
the 28th of September, had not advanced at all from the sea-coast when
Harold and his men appeared upon that hill after their great march
from York upon October 13th. But in fact William, Norman as he was,
had a very clear idea of what he intended to do. He left little to
chance. He landed his men at Pevensey, seized upon Hastings and
beached his ships; then for a whole fortnight he awaited the hot and
weary return of Harold. Harold appeared upon the evening of October
13th. Upon the following day, a Saturday, the battle William had
expected was fought, Harold was slain and his heroic force destroyed.

The story of that day is well known. Harold's forces were drawn up upon
the ridge where the ruins of Battle Abbey now stand. William, upon the
thirteenth, had marched out of Hastings and had occupied the hill to
the east called Telham, where to-day stands Telham Court. In those days
probably no village or habitation of any sort occupied either of these
heights; one of the chroniclers calls the battlefield the place of
"the Hoar Apple Tree."

It is said that the night of October 13th was passed by Harold and his
men in feasting and in jollity, while the Normans confessed their sins
and received absolution. However t