heart of the multitude;
he had in the highest degree that gift, useless in most other lands--in
all lands where popular assemblies do not exist--the gift of popular
eloquence. Ages elapsed, after the Norman conquest, ere eloquence again
became a power in England. [80]

But like all men renowned for eloquence, he went with the popular feeling
of his times; he embodied its passions, its prejudices--but also that
keen sense of self-interest, which is the invariable characteristic of a
multitude. He was the sense of the commonalty carried to its highest
degree. Whatever the faults, it may be the crimes, of a career
singularly prosperous and splendid, amidst events the darkest and most
terrible,--shining with a steady light across the thunder-clouds,--he was
never accused of cruelty or outrage to the mass of the people. English,
emphatically, the English deemed him; and this not the less that in his
youth he had sided with Canute, and owed his fortunes to that king; for
so intermixed were Danes and Saxons in England, that the agreement which
had given to Canute one half the kingdom had been received with general
applause; and the earlier severities of that great prince had been so
redeemed in his later years by wisdom and mildness--so, even in the worst
period of his reign, relieved by extraordinary personal affability, and
so lost now in men's memories by pride in his power and fame,--that
Canute had left behind him a beloved and honoured name [81], and Godwin
was the more esteemed as the chosen counsellor of that popular prince.
At his death, Godwin was known to have wished, and even armed, for the
restoration of the Saxon line; and only yielded to the determination of
the Witan, no doubt acted upon by the popular opinion. Of one dark crime
he was suspected, and, despite his oath to the contrary, and the formal
acquittal of the national council, doubt of his guilt rested then, as it
rests still, upon his name; viz., the perfidious surrender of Alfred,
Edward's murdered brother.

But time had passed over the dismal tragedy; and there was an instinctive
and prophetic feeling throughout the English nation, that with the House
of Godwin was identified the cause of the English people. Everything in
this man's aspect served to plead in his favour. His ample brows were
calm with benignity and thought; his large dark blue eyes were serene and
mild, though their expression, when examined, was close and inscrutable.
His mien