under Gurth, as Earl of the
county [272]. But many aged theowes, past military service, and young
children, grouped around: the first, stolid and indifferent--the last,
prattling, curious, lively, gay. There, too, were the wives of some of
the soldiers, who, as common in Saxon expeditions, had followed their
husbands to the field; and there, too, were the ladies of many a Hlaford
in the neighbouring district, who, no less true to their mates than the
wives of humbler men, were drawn by their English hearts to the fatal
spot. A small wooden chapel, half decayed, stood a little behind, with
its doors wide open, a sanctuary in case of need; and the interior was
thronged with kneeling suppliants.

The two monks joined, with pious gladness, some of their sacred calling,
who were leaning over the low wall, and straining their eyes towards the
bristling field. A little apart from them, and from all, stood a female;
the hood drawn over her face, silent in her unknown thoughts.

By and by, as the march of the Norman multitude sounded hollow, and the
trumps, and the fifes, and the shouts, rolled on through the air, in many
a stormy peal,--the two abbots in the Saxon camp, with their attendant
monks, came riding towards the farm from the entrenchments.

The groups gathered round these new comers in haste and eagerness.

"The battle hath begun," said the Abbot of Hide, gravely. "Pray God for
England, for never was its people in peril so great from man."

The female started and shuddered at those words.

"And the King, the King," she cried, in a sudden and thrilling voice;
"where is he?--the King?"

"Daughter," said the abbot, "the King's post is by his standard; but I
left him in the van of his troops. Where he may be now I know not.
Wherever the foe presses sorest."

Then dismounting, the abbots entered the yard, to be accosted instantly
by all the wives, who deemed, poor souls, that the holy men must,
throughout all the field, have seen their lords; for each felt as if
God's world hung but on the single life in which each pale trembler
lived.

With all their faults of ignorance and superstition, the Saxon churchmen
loved their flocks; and the good abbots gave what comfort was in their
power, and then passed into the chapel, where all who could find room
followed them.

The war now raged.

The two divisions of the invading army that included the auxiliaries had
sought in vain to surround the English vanguard, an