and only those close by could
see that his breast heaved and his limbs trembled. The brothers had
shrunk from the side of the accused, outlawed even amongst his kin--all
save Harold, who, strong in his blameless name and beloved repute,
advanced three strides, amidst the silence, and, standing by his
brother's side, lifted his commanding brow above the seated judges, but
he did not speak.

Then said Sweyn the Earl, strengthened by such solitary companionship in
that hostile assemblage,--"I might answer that for these charges in the
past, for deeds alleged as done eight long years ago, I have the King's
grace, and the inlaw's right; and that in the Witans over which I as earl
presided, no man was twice judged for the same offence. That I hold to be
the law, in the great councils as the small."

"It is! it is!" exclaimed Godwin: his paternal feelings conquering his
prudence and his decorous dignity. "Hold to it, my son!"

"I hold to it not," resumed the young earl, casting a haughty glance over
the somewhat blank and disappointed faces of his foes, "for my law is
here"--and he smote his heart--"and that condemns me not once alone, but
evermore! Alred, O holy father, at whose knees I once confessed my every
sin,--I blame thee not that thou first, in the Witan, liftest thy voice
against me, though thou knowest that I loved Algive from youth upward;
she, with her heart yet mine, was given in the last year of Hardicanute,
when might was right, to the Church. I met her again, flushed with my
victories over the Walloon kings, with power in my hand and passion in my
veins. Deadly was my sin!--But what asked I? that vows compelled should
be annulled; that the love of my youth might yet be the wife of my
manhood. Pardon, that I knew not then how eternal are the bonds ye of
the Church have woven round those of whom, if ye fail of saints, ye may
at least make martyrs!"

He paused, and his lip curled, and his eye shot wild fire; for in that
moment his mother's blood was high within him, and he looked and thought,
perhaps, as some heathen Dane, but the flash of the firmer man was
momentary, and humbly smiting his breast, he murmured,--"Avaunt,
Satan!--yea, deadly was my sin! And the sin was mine alone; Algive, if
stained, was blameless; she escaped--and--and died!"

"The King was wroth; and first to strive against my pardon was Harold my
brother, who now alone in my penitence stands by my side: he strove
manfully and openl