e promises which Harold had made,
namely, to send his daughter to Normandy to be married to one of
William's generals; to marry William's daughter himself; and to maintain
William's claims to the English crown on the death of Edward. He was to
remind Harold, also, of the solemnity with which he had bound himself to
fulfill these obligations, by oaths taken in the presence of the most
sacred relics of the Church, and in the most public and deliberate
manner.

Harold replied,

1. That as to sending over his daughter to be married to one of
William's generals, he could not do it, for his daughter was dead. He
presumed, he said, that William did not wish him to send the corpse.

2. In respect to marrying William's daughter, to whom he had been
affianced in Normandy, he was sorry to say that that was also out of
his power, as he could not take a foreign wife without the consent of
his people, which he was confident would never be given; besides, he
was already married, he said, to a Saxon lady of his own dominions.

3. In regard to the kingdom: it did not depend upon him, he said, to
decide who should rule over England as Edward's successor, but upon the
will of Edward himself, and upon the English people. The English barons
and nobles had decided, with Edward's concurrence, that he, Harold, was
their legitimate and proper sovereign, and that it was not for him to
controvert their will. However much he might be disposed to comply with
William's wishes, and to keep his promise, it was plain that it was out
of his power, for in promising him the English crown, he had promised
what did not belong to him to give.

4. As to his oaths, he said that, notwithstanding the secret presence of
the sacred relics under the cloth of gold, he considered them as of no
binding force upon his conscience, for he was constrained to take them
as the only means of escaping from the duress in which he was virtually
held in Normandy. Promises, and oaths even, when extorted by necessity,
were null and void.

The messenger returned to Normandy with these replies, and William
immediately began to prepare for war.

His first measure was to call a council of his most confidential friends
and advisers, and to lay the subject before them. They cordially
approved of the plan of an invasion of England, and promised to
co-operate in the accomplishment of it to the utmost of their power.

The next step was to call a general council of all the chieftai