"But bloody, bloody was the field,
Ere that lang day was done."

Hardyknute.

"King William bithought him alsoe of that
Folke that was forlorne,
And slayn also thoruz him
In the bataile biforne.
And ther as the bataile was,
An abbey he lite rere
Of Seint Martin, for the soules
That there slayn were.
And the monkes well ynoug
Feffed without fayle,
That is called in Englonde
Abbey of Bataile."

Immediately after the solemn ceremony described in the foregoing
chapter, Harold is depicted as returning to England and presenting
himself before the king, Edward the Confessor. "But the day came that
no man can escape, and King Edward drew near to die." His deathbed and
his funeral procession are both wrought in the tapestry, but by some
accident have been transposed. His remains are borne in splendid
procession to the magnificent house which he had builded (_i.e._
rebuilded), Westminster Abbey; over which, in the sky, a hand is seen
to point as if in benediction. It is well known that the Abbey was
barely finished at the time of the pious monarch's death, and this
circumstance is intimated in an intelligible though homely manner in
the tapestry by a person occupied in placing a weathercock on the
summit of the building.

The first pageant seen within its walls was the funeral array of the
monarch who so beautifully rebuilt and so amply endowed it. Before the
high altar, in a splendid shrine, where gems and jewelry flashed back
the gleams of innumerable torches, and amid the solemn chant of the
monks, whose "Miserere" echoed through the vaulted aisles, interrupted
but by the subdued wail of the mourners, or the emphatic benediction
of the poor whose friend he had been, were laid the remains of him who
was called the Sainted Edward; whose tomb was considered so hallowed a
spot that the very stones around it were worn down by the knees of the
pilgrims who resorted thither for prayer; and the very dust of whose
shrine was carefully swept and collected, exported to the continent,
and bought by devotees at a high price.

We next see in the tapestry the crown _offered_ to Harold (a
circumstance to be peculiarly remarked, since thus depicted by his
opponent's wife), and then Harold shows right royally receiving the
homage and gratulations of those around.

But the next scene forbodes a change of fortune: "ISTI MIRANT STELLA,"
is