er!
Now aid me, Harold, for my soul is troubled, and I cannot work alone; and
though I say naught to others, my heart received a death-blow when tears
fell from its blood-springs on the brow of Sweyn, my first-born." The
old man paused, and his lip quivered.

"Thou, thou alone, Harold, noble boy, thou alone didst stand by his side
in the hall; alone, alone, and I blessed thee in that hour over all the
rest of my sons. Well, well! now to earth again. Aid me, Harold. I
open to thee my web: complete the woof when this hand is cold. The new
tree that stands alone in the plain is soon nipped by the winter; fenced
round with the forest, its youth takes shelter from its fellows [111].
So is it with a house newly founded; it must win strength from the allies
that it sets round its slender stein. What had been Godwin, son of
Wolnoth, had he not married into the kingly house of great Canute? It is
this that gives my sons now the right to the loyal love of the Danes.
The throne passed from Canute and his race, and the Saxons again had
their hour; and I gave, as Jephtha gave his daughter, my blooming Edith,
to the cold bed of the Saxon King. Had sons sprung from that union, the
grandson of Godwin, royal alike from Saxon and Dane, would reign on the
throne of the isle. Fate ordered otherwise, and the spider must weave
web anew. Thy brother, Tostig, has added more splendour than solid
strength of our line, in his marriage with the daughter of Baldwin the
Count. The foreigner helps us little in England. Thou, O Harold, must
bring new props to the House. I would rather see thee wed to the child
of one of our great rivals than to the daughter of kaisar, or outland
king. Siward hath no daughter undisposed of. Algar, son of Leofric,
hath a daughter fair as the fairest; make her thy bride that Algar may
cease to be a foe. This alliance will render Mercia, in truth, subject
to our principalities, since the stronger must quell the weaker. It doth
more. Algar himself has married into the royalty of Wales [112]. Thou
wilt win all those fierce tribes to thy side. Their forces will gain
thee the marches, now held so feebly under Rolf the Norman, and in case
of brief reverse, or sharp danger, their mountains will give refuge from
all foes. This day, greeting Algar, he told me he meditated bestowing
his daughter on Gryffyth, the rebel under-King of North Wales.
Therefore," continued the old Earl, with a smile, "thou must speak in