violation
of them, which he was deliberately and fully determined to incur. He
had, however, gone too far to retreat now. He advanced, therefore, to
the open missal, laid his hand upon the book, and, repeating the words
which William dictated to him from his throne, he took the threefold
oath required, namely, to aid William to the utmost of his power in his
attempt to secure the succession to the English crown, to marry
William's daughter Adela as soon as she should arrive at a suitable age,
and to send over forthwith from England his own daughter, that she might
be espoused to one of William's nobles.

As soon as the oath was thus taken, William caused the missal and the
cloth of gold to be removed, and there appeared beneath it, on the chair
of state, a chest, containing the sacred relics of the Church, which
William had secretly collected from the abbeys and monasteries of his
dominions, and placed in this concealment, that, without Harold's being
conscious of it, their dreadful sanction might be added to that which
the Holy Evangelists imposed. These relics were fragments of bones set
in caskets and frames, and portions of blood--relics, as the monks
alleged, of apostles or of the Savior--and small pieces of wood,
similarly preserved, which had been portions of the cross of Christ or
of his thorny crown. These things were treasured up with great solemnity
in the monastic establishments and in the churches of these early times,
and were regarded with a veneration and awe, of which it is almost
beyond our power even to conceive. Harold trembled when he saw what he
had unwittingly done. He was terrified to think how much more dreadful
was the force of the imprecations that he had uttered than he had
imagined while uttering them. But it was too late to undo what he had
done. The assembly was finally dismissed. William thought he had the
conscience of his new ally firmly secured, and Harold began to prepare
for leaving Normandy.

He continued on excellent terms with William until his departure.
William accompanied him to the sea-shore when the time of his
embarkation arrived, and dismissed him at last with many farewell
honors, and a profusion of presents. Harold set sail, and, crossing the
Channel in safety, he landed in England.

He commenced immediately an energetic system of measures to strengthen
his own cause, and prepare the way for his own accession. He organized
his party, collected arms and munitions of war