, his
liberty, and allow him to depart with twenty vessels. But he had
scarcely time to rejoice for his victory, when he received
intelligence that the Duke of Normandy was landed with a great army in
the south of England.

The Norman fleet and army had been assembled early in the summer, at
the mouth of the small river Dive, and all the troops had been
instantly embarked; but the winds proved long contrary, and detained
them in that harbour. The authority, however, of the duke, the good
discipline maintained among the seamen and soldiers, and the great
care in supplying them with provisions, had prevented any disorder;
when at last the wind became favourable, and enabled them to sail
along the coast, till they reached St. Valori. There were, however,
several vessels lost in this short passage; and as the wind again
proved contrary, the army began to imagine that heaven had declared
against them, and that, notwithstanding the pope's benediction, they
were destined to certain destruction. These bold warriors, who
despised real dangers, were very subject to the dread of imaginary
ones; and many of them began to mutiny, some of them even to desert
their colours; when the duke, in order to support their drooping
hopes, ordered a procession to be made with the relics of St. Valori
[q], and prayers to be said for more favourable weather. The wind
instantly changed; and as this incident happened on the eve of the
feast of St. Michael, the tutelar saint of Normandy, the soldiers,
fancying they saw the hand of Heaven in all these concurring
circumstances, set out with the greatest alacrity: they met with no
opposition on their passage: a great fleet, which Harold has
assembled, and which had cruized all summer off the Isle of Wight, had
been dismissed, on his receiving false intelligence that William,
discouraged by contrary winds and other accidents, had laid aside his
preparations. The Norman armament, proceeding in great order, arrived
without any material loss, at Pevensey, in Sussex; and the army
quietly disembarked. The duke himself, as he leaped on shore,
happened to stumble and fall; but had the presence of mind, it is
said, to turn the omen to his advantage, by calling aloud that he had
taken possession of the country. And a soldier, running to a
neighbouring cottage, plucked some thatch, which, as if giving seisin
of the kingdom, he presented to his general. The joy and alacrity of
William and his whole army