designated, no Danish ship was visible. But it is difficult to credit
what we are told, that Harold, after a vain wait, made the same error as
before, dividing his fleet and sending the greater part of it home. With
the remainder, one hundred and eighty ships strong, he sailed along the
coast, and suddenly found himself in the presence of the Danes, with two
ships to his one.

This time Harold did not flee, but joined battle bravely with his enemy,
the contest lasting through a whole night and ending in a complete
victory over the Danes. It was a great victory, yet it brought Harold no
advantage, for Sweyn did not keep to his compact--if he had made one--to
surrender his throne, and the Danes hated Harold so thoroughly for his
cruel raids on their land that they had no idea of submitting to him. Two
years more passed on, and then Harold, finding that the conquest of
Denmark was hopeless, consented against his will to make peace. In this
way Sweyn, after many years of battling for his throne, forced his
powerful antagonist to give up the contest and promise never to disturb
him again.

Two years after this peace was made, in the year 1066, King Harold took
part in another adventure which brought his tyranny and his life to an
end. It is worth telling for another reason, for it was connected with a
great historical event, the conquest of England by William the Conqueror.
For these two reasons it is very fitting that it should be told.

King Harold of England, who was soon to fall on the fatal field of
Hastings, had a brother, Earl Tostig, who, fired by ambition, set out to
conquer that kingdom for himself. He went first to Denmark and tried to
get King Sweyn to join him in the enterprise, but the prudent Sweyn told
him that he had no desire to follow in the footsteps of his uncle Canute,
but was quite content to dwell at home and rule his own kingdom.

Then Tostig sought Norway, where he found King Harold far more ready to
listen to him. So in September of that year, Harold sailed from Norway
with the most powerful fleet and army that had ever left its shores.
Counting what was added in the Orkneys and the force under Earl Tostig,
it numbered about three hundred and fifty ships and thirty thousand men.
Landing in Northumberland, a victory was won and the city of York taken.
Then, leaving about one-third of the army to guard the ships, Harold and
Tostig encamped at Stamford Bridge, seven miles from York.

It was a wa