as this incident happened on the eve of
the feast of St. Michael, the tutelar saint of Normandy, the
soldiers, fancying they saw the hand of Heaven in all these concurring
circumstances, set out with the greatest alacrity: they met with no
opposition on their passage. A great fleet which Harold had assembled,
and which had cruised all summer off the Isle of Wight, had been
dismissed on his receiving false intelligence that William, discouraged
by contrary winds and other accidents, had laid aside his preparations.
The Norman armament, proceeding in great order, arrived, without any
material loss, at Pevensey, in Sussex; and the army quietly disembarked.
The duke himself, as he leaped on shore, happened to stumble and fall;
but had the presence of mind, it is said, to turn the omen to his
advantage, by calling aloud that he had taken possession of the country.
And a soldier, running to a neighboring cottage, plucked some thatch,
which, as if giving him seizin of the kingdom, he presented to his
general. The joy and alacrity of William and his whole army was so
great, that they were nowise discouraged, evan when they heard of
Harold's great victory over the Norwegians. They seemed rather to wait
with impatience the arrival of the enemy.

The victory of Harold, though great and honorable, had proved in the
main prejudicial to his interests, and may be regarded as the immediate
cause of his ruin. He lost many of his bravest officers and soldiers
in the action, and he disgusted the rest by refusing to distribute the
Norwegian spoils among them; a conduct which was little agreeable to his
usual generosity of temper, but which his desire of sparing the people,
in the war that impended over him from the duke of Normandy, had
probably occasioned. He hastened by quick marches to reach this new
invader; but though he was reenforced at London and other places with
fresh troops, he found himself also weakened by the desertion of his old
soldiers, who from fatigue and discontent secretly withdrew from their
colors. His brother Gurth, a man of bravery and conduct, began to
entertain apprehensions of the event; and remonstrated with the king,
that it would be better policy to prolong the war; at least, to spare
his own person in the action. He urged to him that the desperate
situation of the duke of Normandy made it requisite for that prince to
bring matters to a speedy decision, and put his whole fortune on the
issue of a battle; but