Go, and prosper. Be
it as thou wilt."

"He takes thy post, Sweyn--thou art the elder," said Tostig, to the wild
form by his side.

"There is guilt on my soul, and woe in my heart," answered Sweyn,
moodily. "Shall Esau lose his birthright, and Cain retain it?" So
saying, he withdrew, and, reclining against the stern of the vessel,
leant his face upon the edge of his shield.

Harold watched him with deep compassion in his eyes, passed to his side
with a quick step, pressed his hand, and whispered, "Peace to the past, O
my brother!"

The boy Haco, who had noiselessly followed his father, lifted his sombre,
serious looks to Harold as he thus spoke; and when Harold turned away, he
said to Sweyn, timidly, "He, at least, is ever good to thee and to me."

"And thou, when I am no more, shalt cling to him as thy father, Haco,"
answered Sweyn, tenderly smoothing back the child's dark locks.

The boy shivered; and, bending his head, murmured to himself, "When thou
art no more! No more? Has the Vala doomed him, too? Father and son,
both?"

Meanwhile, Harold had entered the boat lowered from the sides of the
aesca to receive him; and Gurth, looking appealingly to his father, and
seeing no sign of dissent, sprang down after the young Earl, and seated
himself by his side. Godwin followed the boat with musing eyes.

"Small need," said he, aloud, but to himself, "to believe in soothsayers,
or to credit Hilda the saga, when she prophesied, ere we left our shores,
that Harold--" He stopped short, for Tostig's wrathful exclamation broke
on his reverie.

"Father, father! My blood surges in my ears, and boils in my heart, when
I hear thee name the prophecies of Hilda in favour of thy darling.
Dissension and strife in our house have they wrought already; and if the
feuds between Harold and me have sown grey in thy locks, thank thyself
when, flushed with vain soothsayings for thy favoured Harold, thou
saidst, in the hour of our first childish broil, 'Strive not with Harold;
for his brothers will be his men.'"

"Falsify the prediction," said Godwin, calmly; "wise men may always make
their own future, and seize their own fates. Prudence, patience, labour,
valour; these are the stars that rule the career of mortals."

Tostig made no answer; for the splash of oars was near, and two ships,
containing the principal chiefs that had joined Godwin's cause, came
alongside the Runic aesca to hear the result of the message sent to the