designed it to be the instrument. He
refused to crown William Rufus, until that king had sworn to govern
according to law and to right; and died, though a Norman usurper,
honoured and beloved by the Saxon people.

Scholar, and morning star of light in the dark age of force and fraud, it
is easier to praise thy life, than to track through the length of
centuries all the measureless and invisible benefits which the life of
one scholar bequeaths to the world--in the souls it awakens--in the
thoughts it suggests! [283]

NOTE (F)

Edward the Confessor's reply to Magnus of Denmark who claimed his Crown.

On rare occasions Edward was not without touches of a brave kingly
nature.

Snorro Sturleson gives us a noble and spirited reply of the Confessor to
Magnus, who, as heir of Canute, claimed the English crown; it concludes
thus:--"Now, he (Hardicanute) died, and then it was the resolution of all
the people of the country to take me, for the king here in England. So
long as I had no kingly title I served my superiors in all respects, like
those who had no claims by birth to land or kingdom. Now, however, I
have received the kingly title, and am consecrated king; I have
established my royal dignity and authority, as my father before me; and
while I live I will not renounce my title. If King Magnus comes here
with an army, I will gather no army against him; but he shall only get
the opportunity of taking England when he has taken my life. Tell him
these words of mine." If we may consider this reply to be authentic, it
is significant, as proof that Edward rests his title on the resolution of
the people to take him for king; and counts as nothing, in comparison,
his hereditary claims. This, together with the general tone of the
reply, particularly the passage in which he implies that he trusts his
defence not to his army but his people--makes it probable that Godwin
dictated the answer; and, indeed, Edward himself could not have couched
it, either in Saxon or Danish. But the King is equally entitled to the
credit of it, whether he composed it, or whether he merely approved and
sanctioned its gallant tone and its princely sentiment.

NOTE (G)

Heralds.

So much of the "pride, pomp, and circumstance" which invest the Age of
Chivalry is borrowed from these companions of princes, and blazoners of
noble deeds, that it may interest the reader, if I set briefly before him
what our best antiquaries have said as to