of
little bodily strength. William, on the other hand, was distinguished
for his size, and for his extraordinary muscular energy. In a modern
combat with fire-arms these personal advantages would be of no avail,
but in those days, when the weapons were battle-axes, lances, and
swords, they were almost decisive of the result. Harold therefore
declined all William's propositions, and the monk returned.

William seems not to have been wholly discouraged by this failure of his
first attempt at negotiation, for he sent his embassage a second time
to make one more proposal. It was, that if Harold would consent to
acknowledge William as King of England, William would assign the whole
territory to him and to his brother Gurth, to hold _as provinces_, under
William's general sway. Under this arrangement William would himself
return to Normandy, making the city of Rouen, which was his capital
there, the capital of the whole united realm. To this proposal Harold
replied, that he could not, on any terms, give up his rights as
sovereign of England. He therefore declined this proposal also. He,
however, now made a proposition in his turn. He was willing, he said, to
compromise the dispute, so far as it could be done by _the payment of
money_. If William would abandon his invasion and return to Normandy,
giving up his claims to the English crown, he would pay him, he said,
any sum of money that he would name.

William could not accept this proposal. He was, as he believed, the true
and rightful heir to the throne of England, and there was a point of
honor involved, as well as a dictate of ambition to be obeyed, in
insisting on the claim. In the mean time, the day had passed, while
these fruitless negotiations had been pending. Night was coming on.
William's officers and counselors began to be uneasy at the delay. They
said that every hour new re-enforcements were coming into Harold's camp,
while they themselves were gaining no advantage, and, consequently, the
longer the battle was delayed, the less was the certainty of victory. So
William promised them that he would attack King Harold in his camp the
very next morning.

As the time for the great final struggle drew near, Harold's mind was
oppressed more and more with a sense of anxiety and with foreboding
fears. His brothers, too, were ill at ease. Their solicitude was
increased by the recollection of Harold's oath, and of the awful
sanctions with which they feared the sacred rel