bot of Peterborough; that is to say, a tenant bound to perform
military service to his lord. His lord, the abbot, was at Hastings
with his tenants, and fought there. That Hereward of all the abbot's
tenants should have followed his lord to Hastings is more than likely;
the strange thing would be that he should not have done so. That going
thither nameless among the many, he should gain experience under
Harold, though no fame has come to him through the historians from a
field where Saxon fame was buried; that his own genius should make
him use his experience when need arose; that among the English all
survivors from that field who were still unwilling to bow the knee to
William would be reckoned as heroes by their depressed countrymen;
that on this account alone he would be given rank above Morcar, who
had kept away from Hastings--are the conclusions to be drawn
legitimately from the silence as well as the actual records of
history, compared with the story told by tradition. History and
tradition are in accord, not in conflict; the gaps of history are
filled by tradition--that tradition which was suitable and worthy of
so great a hero, namely the ancient tradition told of all heroes.
Reopening these gaps and putting in its right place the tradition
which had hitherto prevented them from being seen, we are able to
appeal to history to yield up the true story of one of the greatest of
English heroes, a story which shows him to have been at Hastings by
the side of Harold, to have won fame there, to have continued the
fight for English liberty as leader of the English patriots, and to
have earned a place in the unsung English epic.

But his place in English tradition helps us to understand the value
and position of tradition in such cases. The traditions clustering
round the name of Hereward do not compel us to interpret them as
Hereward facts. The historian, however, need not on this account fear
for Hereward. He should rather value the traditions as evidence of the
greatness of the English hero among the conquered English. They
applied to him the legends of their oldest heroes. All that was
delightful to them in tradition was attached to their present hero.
He was worthy of a place among their greatest. And thus the fact of
added tradition brings out the estimate of the worth of the hero to
those among whom he lived and for whom he fought.

The traditions themselves belong to far other times, and the facts
contained in