andy;
and if he, a private person, had assumed so much authority, and had
even voluntarily sworn to support the duke's pretensions, the oath was
unlawful, and it was his duty to seize the first opportunity of
breaking it: that he had obtained the crown by the unanimous suffrages
of the people; and should prove himself totally unworthy of their
favour, did he not strenuously maintain those national liberties, with
whose protection they had entrusted him: and that the duke, if he made
any attempt by force of arms, should experience the power of an united
nation, conducted by a prince, who, sensible of the obligations
imposed on him by his royal dignity, was determined that the same
moment should put a period to his life and to his government [g].
[FN [g] W. Malm. p. 99. Higden, p. 285. Matth. West. p. 222. De
Gest. Angl. ancento auctore, p. 331.]

This answer was no other than William expected; and he had previously
fixed his resolution of making an attempt upon England. Consulting
only his courage, his resentment, and his ambition, he overlooked all
the difficulties inseparable from an attack on a great kingdom by such
inferior force, and he saw only the circumstances which would
facilitate his enterprise. He considered that England, ever since the
accession of Canute, had enjoyed profound tranquillity during a period
of over fifty years; and it would require time for its soldiers,
enervated by long peace, to learn discipline, and its generals
experience. He knew that it was entirely unprovided with fortified
towns, by which it could prolong the war; but must venture its whole
fortune in one decisive action against a veteran enemy, who, being
once master of the field, would be in a condition to overrun the
kingdom. He saw that Harold, though he had given proofs of vigour and
bravery, had newly mounted a throne, which he had acquired by faction,
from which he had excluded a very ancient royal family, and which was
likely to totter under him by its own instability, much more if shaken
by any violent external impulse; and he hoped, that the very
circumstance of his crossing the sea, quitting his own country, and
leaving himself no hopes of retreat, as it would astonish the enemy by
the boldness of the enterprise, would inspirit his soldiers by
despair, and rouse them to sustain the reputation of the Norman arms.

The Normans, as they had long been distinguished by valour among all
the European nations, had at this