y; I blamed him not: but Beorn, my cousin, desired my
earldom; and he strove against me, wilily and in secret,--to my face
kind, behind my back despiteful. I detected his falsehood, and meant to
detain, but not to slay him. He lay bound in my ship; he reviled and he
taunted me in the hour of my gloom; and when the blood of the sea-kings
flowed in fire through my veins. And I lifted my axe in ire; and my men
lifted theirs, and so,--and so!--Again I say--Deadly was my sin! Think
not that I seek now to make less my guilt, as I sought when I deemed that
life was yet long, and power was yet sweet. Since then I have known
worldly evil, and worldly good,--the storm and the shine of life; I have
swept the seas, a sea-king; I have battled with the Dane in his native
land; I have almost grasped in my right hand, as I grasped in my dreams,
the crown of my kinsman, Canute;--again, I have been a fugitive and an
exile;--again, I have been inlawed, and Earl of all the lands from Isis
to the Wye [91]. And whether in state or in penury,--whether in war or in
peace, I have seen the pale face of the nun betrayed, and the gory wounds
of the murdered man. Wherefore I come not here to plead for a pardon,
which would console me not, but formally to dissever my kinsmen's cause
from mine, which alone sullies and degrades it;--I come here to say,
that, coveting not your acquittal, fearing not your judgment, I pronounce
mine own doom. Cap of noble, and axe of warrior, I lay aside for ever;
barefooted, and alone, I go hence to the Holy Sepulchre; there to assoil
my soul, and implore that grace which cannot come from man! Harold, step
forth in the place of Sweyn the first-born! And ye prelates and peers,
milites and ministers, proceed to adjudge the living! To you, and to
England, he who now quits you is the dead!"

He gathered his robe of state over his breast as a monk his gown, and
looking neither to right nor to left, passed slowly down the hall,
through the crowd, which made way for him in awe and silence; and it
seemed to the assembly as if a cloud had gone from the face of day.

And Godwin still stood with his face covered by his robe.

And Harold anxiously watched the faces of the assembly, and saw no
relenting.

And Gurth crept to Harold's side.

And the gay Leofwine looked sad.

And the young Wolnoth turned pale and trembled.

And the fierce Tostig played with his golden chain.

And one low sob was heard, and it came from