ch shore. William gave orders
to embark. The tents were struck. The baggage of the soldiers was sent
on board the transport vessels. The men themselves, crowded into great
flat-bottomed boats, passed in masses to the ships from the shore. The
spectators reappeared, and covered the cliffs and promontories near, to
witness the final scene. The sails were hoisted, and the vast armament
moved out upon the sea.

The appearance of a favorable change in the weather proved fallacious
after all, for the clouds and storm returned, and after being driven, in
apprehension and danger, about a hundred miles to the northeast along
the coast, the fleet was compelled to seek refuge again in a harbor. The
port which received them was St. Valery, near Dieppe. The duke was
greatly disappointed at being obliged thus again to take the land.
Still, the attempt to advance had not been a labor wholly lost; for as
the French coast here trends to the northward, they had been gradually
narrowing the channel as they proceeded, and were, in fact, so far on
the way toward the English shores. Then there were, besides, some
reasons for touching here, before the final departure, to receive some
last re-enforcements and supplies. William had also one more opportunity
of communicating with his capital and with Matilda.

These delays, disastrous as they seemed to be, and ominous of evil, were
nevertheless attended with one good effect, of which, however, William
at the time was not aware. They led Harold, in England, to imagine that
the enterprise was abandoned, and so put him off his guard. There were
in those days, as has already been remarked, no regular and public modes
of intercommunication, by which intelligence of important movements and
events was spread every where, as now, with promptness and certainty.
Governments were obliged, accordingly, to rely for information, in
respect to what their enemies were doing, on rumors, or on the reports
of spies. Rumors had gone to England in August that William was
meditating an invasion, and Harold had made some extensive preparations
to meet and oppose him; but, finding that he did not come--that week
after week of September passed away, and no signs of an enemy appeared,
and gaining no certain information of the causes of the delay, he
concluded that the enterprise was abandoned, or else, perhaps, postponed
to the ensuing spring. Accordingly, as the winter was coming on, he
deemed it best to commence his p