Harold, Complete

the lasses, who overslept themselves on the first of that buxom month. Long ere th

the Hall and Abbey of Westminster;) many a wood lay dark in the starlight, along the higher ground that sloped from the dank Strand, with its numerous canals or dykes;

d by girls with laps full of flowers, which they had caught asleep. The poles were pranked with nosegays, and a chaplet was hung round the horns of every ox. Then towards daybreak, the processions streamed back into the city, through all its gates; boy

ought the s

maying; but these merriments, savouring of heathenesse, that good prince misliked: nevertheless the

ear the ruined walls, and timbered outbuildings, grey Druid stones (that spoke of an age before either Saxon or Roman invader) gleaming through the dawn-the song was hushed-the very youngest crossed themselves; and the elder, in solemn whispers, suggested the precaution of changing the song into a psalm. For in that old building

its May-pole, which stood in its place all the year. On that happy day labour rested; ceorl and theowe had alike a holiday t

uts made by oxen (yoked often in teams from twenty to forty, in the wains that carried home the poles); and fair and frequent throughout the l

tha. It stood upon a gentle and verdant height; and, even through all the barbarous mutilation it had u

ned rarely that the Saxon had chosen his home amidst the villas of those noble and p

ry rule, it is now impossible to conjecture, but from a very r

vium, and the smoke went sullenly through the aperture in the roof, made of old to receive the rains of heaven. Around the Hall were still left the old cubicula or dormitories, (small, high, and lighted but from the doors,) which now served for the sleeping-rooms of the humbler guest or the household servant; while at the farther end of the Hall, the wide space between the columns, which had once given ample vista from graceful awnings into tablinum and viridarium

the peristyle were a mass of ruins, through the gigantic rents of which loomed a grassy hillock, its sides partially covered with clumps of furze. On this hillock were the mutilated remains of an ancient Druidical crommel, in the centre of which (near a funeral mound, or barrow, with the bautastean, or gravestone, of

cellum, or fane to Bacchus (as relief and frieze, yet spared, betokened): thus the eye, at one survey, beheld the shrines of four creeds: the Druid, mystical and symbolical; the Roman, sensual, bu

of a higher class, half-armed, were, some drinking, some at dice, some playing wi

the favoured apartment of the female portion of the household, and indeed

ustry of the women decorated wall and furniture with needlework and hangings: and as a thegn forfeited his rank if he lost his lands, so the higher orders of an aristocracy rather of

feet reclined a girl somewhat about the age of sixteen, her long hair parted across her forehead and falling far down her shoulders. Her dress was a linen under-tunic, with long sleeves, rising high to the throat, and without one of the modern artificial restraints of the shape, the simple belt sufficed to show the slender proportions and delicate outline of the wearer. The colour of the dress was of the purest white, but its hems, or borders, were richly embroidered. This girl's beauty was something marvellous. In a land proverbial for fair women, it had already obtained her the name of "the fair." In that beauty were blended, not as y

handmaids, that every spindle stopped for a moment and then plied with renewed activity; "Grandam, what t

above even the ordinary standard of men; and turning from the child, her eye fell upon the row of silent maids, each at her rapid, noiseless, stealthy work. "Ho!" said she; her cold and haughty eye

r paled at the words of the mistress. The spindles revolved, the t

ons?-yea, I heard the smith welding arms on the anvil, and the hammer of the shipwright shaping strong ribs for the horses of the sea. Ere the reaper has bound his sheaves, Earl Godwin will s

dmother?" asked the girl, with wo

g-sheet of

than before, gazed upon space, and her pale hand

through the dull window. "Give me my co

med recently commenced, and was certainly not endeared to them by the

e head of which formed a raven, carved from some wood stained black, she passed into the hall, and thence through the desecrated tablinum, i

in life;-this day,"-and Hilda paused, and the rigid a

gain, my gr

the vision darkens from me.-when again,

and ascended the little hillock. There on the opposite side of the summit, backed by

ot more by the dialect than the sentiment, betrayed its origin in the ballad of the Norse 11, which had, in its more careless

the thros

he mer

e signs but

t is fa

loometh me

ely buds

ey bring the

no home

utlawed him

law fa

sing, the flow

me back

high road to London-which then wound through wastes of forest land-and now emerging from the trees to the left appeared a goodly company. First came two riders abreast, each holding a banner. On the one

pageant; the last was strange to her. She had been accustomed to see the banner of t

place banner or pennon where

d Hilda, "pe

bonnet not dissimilar to those in use among the Scotch, streamed hair long and white as snow, mingling with a large and forked beard. White seemed his chosen colour. White was the upper tunic clasped on his shoulder with a broad ouche or brooch; white the woollen leggings fitted to somewhat emaciated limbs; and white the mantle, though broidered with a broad hem of gold and purple. The fashion of his dress was that which well became a noble person, but it suited ill the somewh

ople of whom my neighbours, the Breton tell us much, abound greatly in this fair land of yours; and if I were not by the side of one who

fore him, with the warm May wind lifting and playing with her long golden locks. He checked his palfrey, and murmured some Latin words which the knight beside him recognised as a prayer, an

dard-bearers halted, as did the king and his comrade-the procession behind halted-thirty knights, two bishops, eight abbots, all on fiery steeds and in Norman garb-squir

o the higher classes in England, had, since his accession, become the only language in use at court, and as such every one of 'Eorl-kind' was supposed to spe

g her head,

mes it, O little one, that thou, whose thoughts should be lifted already above this carnal world, and eager for the service of

went and came, her breast heaved high, but with an effort beyond her age she checked h

lfrey with apparent perturbation, "but

if she had emerged from the earth. With a light and rapid stride she gained the side of her grandchild; and a

d, with a reluctant tone, as that of a man who obeys his conscience against his inclination, "that I would pray thee to keep

loisters, but to rock children for war in their father's shield. Few men are there yet like the men of old; and

lurid flush passed over his cheek of bronze; "but thou art too glib of tongue for a su

a certain terror was visible. "Child," she said, putting her hand upon Edith's fair

was edged by a deep band of embroidered gold; leaving perfectly bare his firm, full throat-firm and full as a column of granite,-a short jacket or manteline of fur, pendant from the shoulders, left de

nt; nevertheless, so did his port 13, his air, the nobility of his large pro

small skull-cap left unconcealed his forehead, shaded with short thick hair, uncurled, but black and glossy as the wings of a raven. It was on that forehead that time had set its trace; it was knit into a frown over the eyebrows; lines deep as furrows crossed its broad, but not elevated expanse. That frown spoke of hasty ire and the habit of stern command; those furrows spoke of deep thought and plotting scheme; the one betrayed but temper and circumsta

h the terror that seized the girl as she gazed long and wistful upon the knight. The fascination of the serpent on the bird held

d, learn not from thy peevish grandam so uncourteous a lesson as hate of the foreigner. As thou growest into womanhood, know that Norman knight is sworn slave to lady fair;" and, doffing his cap, he took from

im, held no lap to receive it; and Hilda, to whom Edward had been speaking in a low voice, ad

man kinsman. And if, as men say, thou art of such gifted holiness that Heaven grants thy hand

upon all. Then dropping her hood over her face, she slowly turned away, regained the summit of the knoll, and stood erect beside

id Edward, cr

e face, "it moves much my simple wonder how even presence so saintly can hear without wrath words so unleal and foul. Gramercy,

r," interrupted Edward; "prayed to our

n the other hand, this bowed the Duke in a kind of involuntary and superstitious homage to the man who sought to square deeds to faith. It is ever the case with stern and stormy spirits, that the meek ones which contrast them steal strangely into their affections. This principle of human nature can alone account for the enthusiastic devotion

usual to him: "and were I thy subject, woe to man or woman that wagged tongue to wound thee by a breath. Bu

sper, as he cast a hurried glance around him, "that this unhappy woman has ever been more addicted to the rites of her pagan ancestors than to those of Holy Church; and men do say th

ithering look towards the proud figure of Hilda, still seen through the glades, and said in a sinister voice: "Of

t perilous connection; for the banished Earl, as thou knowest, did not pretend t

s imperfect information in all the leading events and characters in his own kingdom, that we will venture to take upon ourselves his task; and while the