rl's robe.

As soon as the first joy of the meeting was over, the Earl said to Haco,
whom he had drawn to his breast with an embrace as fond as that bestowed
on Wolnoth:

"Remembering thee a boy, I came to say to thee, 'Be my son;' but seeing
thee a man, I change the prayer;--supply thy father's place, and be my
brother! And thou, Wolnoth, hast thou kept thy word to me? Norman is thy
garb, in truth; is thy heart still English?"

"Hist!" whispered Haco; "hist! We have a proverb, that walls have ears."

"But Norman walls can hardly understand our broad Saxon of Kent, I
trust," said Harold, smiling, though with a shade on his brow.

"True; continue to speak Saxon," said Haco, "and we are safe."

"Safe!" echoed Harold.

"Haco's fears are childish, my brother," said Wolnoth, "and he wrongs the
Duke."

"Not the Duke, but the policy which surrounds him like an atmosphere,"
exclaimed Haco. "Oh, Harold, generous indeed wert thou to come hither
for thy kinsfolk--generous! But for England's weal, better that we had
rotted out our lives in exile, ere thou, hope and prop of England, set
foot in these webs of wile."

"Tut!" said Wolnoth, impatiently; "good is it for England that the Norman
and Saxon should be friends." Harold, who had lived to grow as wise in
men's hearts as his father, save when the natural trustfulness that lay
under his calm reserve lulled his sagacity, turned his eye steadily on
the faces of his two kinsmen; and he saw at the first glance that a
deeper intellect and a graver temper than Wolnoth's fair face betrayed
characterised the dark eye and serious brow of Haco. He therefore drew
his nephew a little aside, and said to him:

"Forewarned is forearmed. Deemest thou that this fairspoken Duke will
dare aught against my life?"

"Life, no; liberty, yes."

Harold startled, and those strong passions native to his breast, but
usually curbed beneath his majestic will, heaved in his bosom and flashed
in his eye.

"Liberty!--let him dare! Though all his troops paved the way from his
court to his coasts, I would hew my way through their ranks."

"Deemest thou that I am a coward?" said Haco, simply, "yet contrary to
all law and justice, and against King Edward's well-known remonstrance,
hath not the Count detained me years, yea, long years, in his land? Kind
are his words, wily his deeds. Fear not force; fear fraud."

"I fear neither," answered Harold, drawing himself up, "nor do I repent
me on