King. Tostig sprang to the vessel's side, and exclaimed, "The King, girt
by his false counsellors, will hear us not, and arms must decide between
us."

"Hold, hold! malignant, unhappy boy!" cried Godwin, between his grinded
teeth, as a shout of indignant, yet joyous ferocity broke from the
crowded ships thus hailed. "The curse of all time be on him who draws
the first native blood in sight of the altars and hearths of London!
Hear me, thou with the vulture's blood-lust, and the peacock's vain joy
in the gaudy plume! Hear me, Tostig, and tremble. If but by one word
thou widen the breach between me and the King, outlaw thou enterest
England, outlaw shalt thou depart--for earldom and broad lands; choose
the bread of the stranger, and the weregeld of the wolf!"

The young Saxon, haughty as he was, quailed at his father's thrilling
voice, bowed his head, and retreated sullenly. Godwin sprang on the deck
of the nearest vessel, and all the passions that Tostig had aroused, he
exerted his eloquence to appease.

In the midst of his arguments, there rose from the ranks on the strand,
the shout of "Harold! Harold the Earl! Harold and Holy Crosse!" And
Godwin, turning his eye to the King's ranks, saw them agitated, swayed,
and moving; till suddenly, from the very heart of the hostile array,
came, as by irresistible impulse, the cry, "Harold, our Harold! All
hail, the good Earl!"

While this chanced without,--within the palace, Edward had quitted the
presence-chamber, and was closeted with Stigand, the bishop. This
prelate had the more influence with Edward, inasmuch as though Saxon, he
was held to be no enemy to the Normans, and had, indeed, on a former
occasion, been deposed from his bishopric on the charge of too great an
attachment to the Norman queen-mother Emma [83]. Never in his whole life
had Edward been so stubborn as on this occasion. For here, more than his
realm was concerned, he was threatened in the peace of his household, and
the comfort of his tepid friendships. With the recall of his powerful
father-in-law, he foresaw the necessary reintrusion of his wife upon the
charm of his chaste solitude. His favourite Normans would be banished,
he should be surrounded with faces he abhorred. All the representations
of Stigand fell upon a stern and unyielding spirit, when Siward entered
the King's closet.

"Sir, my King," said the great son of Beorn, "I yielded to your kingly
will in the council, that, before