artial disposition. When intelligence was
brought him of his son Osberne's death, he was inconsolable till he
heard that the wound was received in the breast, and that he had
behaved with great gallantry in the action. When he found his own
death approaching, he ordered his servants to clothe him in a complete
suit of armour; and sitting erect on the couch, with a spear in his
hand, declared that in that posture, the only one worthy of a warrior,
he would patiently await the fatal moment.

The king, now worn out with cares and infirmities, felt himself far
advanced in the decline of life; and having no issue himself, began to
think of appointing a successor to the kingdom. He sent a deputation
to Hungary, to invite over his nephew, Edward, son of his elder
brother, and the only remaining heir of the Saxon line. That prince,
whose succession to the crown would have been easy and undisputed,
came to England with his children, Edgar, surnamed Atheling, Margaret,
and Christina; but his death, which happened a few days after his
arrival, threw the king into new difficulties. He saw, that the great
power and ambition of Harold had tempted him to think of obtaining
possession of the throne on the first vacancy, and that Edgar, on
account of his youth and inexperience, was very unfit to oppose the
pretensions of so popular and enterprising a rival. The animosity
which he had long borne to Earl Godwin, made him averse to the
succession of his son, and he could not, without extreme reluctance,
think of an increase of grandeur to a family which had risen on the
ruins of royal authority, and which, by the murder of Alfred his
brother, had contributed so much to the weakening of the Saxon line.
In this uncertainty, he secretly cast his eye towards his kinsman,
William, Duke of Normandy, as the only person whose power, and
reputation, and capacity, could support any destination which he might
make in his favour, to the exclusion of Harold and his family [r].
[FN [r] Ingulph. p. 68.]

This famous prince was natural son of Robert, Duke of Normandy, by
Harlotta, daughter of a tanner in Falaise [s], and was very early
established in that grandeur from which his birth seemed to have set
him at so great a distance. While he was but nine years of age, his
father had resolved to undertake a pilgrimage to Jerusalem; a
fashionable act of devotion, which had taken the place of pilgrimages
to Rome, and which, as it was attended with mo