easons
for his selection, the charm it took, in his eyes, from that signal mark
of affection which his ceorls had rendered him, in purchasing the house
and tilling the ground in his absence; and more especially the
convenience of its vicinity to the new palace at Westminster; for, by
Edward's special desire, while the other brothers repaired to their
different domains, Harold remained near his royal person. To use the
words of the great Norwegian chronicler, "Harold was always with the
Court itself, and nearest to the King in all service."

"The King loved him very much, and kept him as his own son, for he had no
children."' This attendance on Edward was naturally most close at the
restoration to power of the Earl's family. For Harold, mild and
conciliating, was, like Alred, a great peacemaker, and Edward had never
cause to complain of him, as he believed he had of the rest of that
haughty house. But the true spell which made dear to Harold the rude
building of timber, with its doors open all day to his lithsmen, when
with a light heart he escaped from the halls of Westminster, was the fair
face of Edith his neighbour. The impression which this young girl had
made upon Harold seemed to partake of the strength of a fatality. For
Harold had loved her before the marvellous beauty of her womanhood began;
and, occupied from his earliest youth in grave and earnest affairs, his
heart had never been frittered away on the mean and frivolous affections
of the idle. Now, in that comparative leisure of his stormy life, he was
naturally most open to the influence of a charm more potent than all the
glamoury of Hilda.

The autumn sun shone through the golden glades of the forest-land, when
Edith sate alone on the knoll that faced forestland and road, and watched
afar.

And the birds sung cheerily; but that was not the sound for which Edith
listened: and the squirrel darted from tree to tree on the sward beyond;
but not to see the games of the squirrel sat Edith by the grave of the
Teuton. By-and-by, came the cry of the dogs, and the tall gre-hound
[108] of Wales emerged from the bosky dells. Then Edith's heart heaved,
and her eyes brightened. And now, with his hawk on his wrist, and his
spear [109] in his hand, came, through the yellowing boughs, Harold the
Earl.

And well may ye ween, that his heart beat as loud and his eye shone as
bright as Edith's, when he saw who had watched for his footsteps on the
sepulchral kno