h most men required both arms to wield it,) he
advanced a step, and clove the rushing arrow in twain.

Before William's loud oath of wrath and surprise left his lips, the five
shafts of the remaining archers fell as vainly as their predecessors
against the nimble shield.

Then advancing, Harold said, cheerfully: "This is but defence, fair
Duke--and little worth were the axe if it could not smite as well as
ward. Wherefore, I pray you, place upon yonder broken stone pillar,
which seems some relic of Druid heathenesse, such helm and shirt of mail
as thou deemest most proof against sword and pertuizan, and judge then if
our English axe can guard well our English land."

"If thy axe can cleave the helmet I wore at Bavent, when the Franks and
their King fled before me," said the Duke, grimly, "I shall hold Caesar
in fault, not to have invented a weapon so dread."

And striding back into his pavilion, he came forth with the helm and
shirt of mail, which was worn stronger and heavier by the Normans, as
fighting usually on horseback, than by Dane and Saxon, who, mainly
fighting on foot, could not have endured so cumbrous a burthen: and if
strong and dour generally with the Norman, judge what solid weight that
mighty Duke could endure! With his own hand William placed the mail on
the ruined Druid stone, and on the mail the helm.

Harold looked long and gravely at the edge of the axe; it was so richly
gilt and damasquined, that the sharpness of its temper could not well
have been divined under that holiday glitter. But this axe had come to
him from Canute the Great, who himself, unlike the Danes, small and
slight [195], had supplied his deficiency of muscle by the finest
dexterity and the most perfect weapons. Famous had been that axe in the
delicate hand of Canute--how much more tremendous in the ample grasp of
Harold! Swinging now in both hands this weapon, with a peculiar and
rapid whirl, which gave it an inconceivable impetus, the Earl let fall
the crushing blow: at the first stroke, cut right in the centre, rolled
the helm; at the second, through all the woven mail (cleft asunder, as if
the slightest filigree work of the goldsmith,) shore the blade, and a
great fragment of the stone itself came tumbling on the sod.

The Normans stood aghast, and William's face was as pale as the shattered
stone. The great Duke felt even his matchless dissimulation fail him;
nor, unused to the special practice and craft which the a