ord to the
Earl he strode back to Edward, who now with vacant eyes looked up from
the rosary over which he had been bending, and said abruptly:

"My lord the King, I have spoken as I think it becomes a man who knows
his own claims, and believes in the gratitude of princes. Three days
will I tarry in London for your gracious answer; on the fourth I depart.
May the saints guard your throne, and bring around it its best defence,
the thegn-born satraps whose fathers fought with Alfred and Athelstan.
All went well with merrie England till the hoof of the Dane King broke
the soil, and mushrooms sprung up where the oak-trees fell."

When the son of Leofric had left the chamber, the King rose wearily and
said in Norman French, to which language he always yearningly returned
when with those who could speak it:

"Beau frere and bien aime, in what trifles must a king pass his life!
And, all this while, matters grave and urgent demand me. Know that
Eadmer, the cheapman, waits without, and hath brought me, dear and good
man, the thumb of St. Jude! What thought of delight! And this
unmannerly son of strife, with his jay's voice and wolf's eyes, screaming
at me for earldoms!--oh the folly of man! Naught, naught, very naught!"

"Sir and King," said Harold; "it ill becomes me to arraign your pious
desires, but these relics are of vast cost; our coasts are ill defended,
and the Dane yet lays claim to your kingdom. Three thousand pounds of
silver and more does it need to repair even the old wall of London and
Southweorc."

"Three thousand pounds!" cried the King; "thou art mad, Harold! I have
scarce twice that sum in the treasury; and besides the thumb of St. Jude,
I daily expect the tooth of St. Remigius--the tooth of St. Remigius!"

Harold sighed. "Vex not yourself, my lord, I will see to the defences of
London. For, thanks to your grace, my revenues are large, while my wants
are simple. I seek you now to pray your leave to visit my earldom. My
lithsmen murmur at my absence, and grievances, many and sore, have arisen
in my exile."

The King stared in terror; and his look was that of a child when about to
be left in the dark.

"Nay, nay; I cannot spare thee, beau frere. Thou curbest all these stiff
thegns--thou leavest me time for the devout; moreover, thy father, thy
father, I will not be left to thy father! I love him not!"

"My father," said Harold, mournfully, "returns to his own earldom; and of
all our House y