then, in my dying hour, God's pardon and peace may descend
on me!" He spoke, and went.

The accounts he received from Anlaf (a veteran Anglo-Dane), were indeed
more alarming than he had yet heard. Morcar, the bold son of Algar, was
already proclaimed, by the rebels, Earl of Northumbria; the shires of
Nottingham, Derby, and Lincoln, had poured forth their hardy Dane
populations on his behalf. All Mercia was in arms under his brother
Edwin; and many of the Cymrian chiefs had already joined the ally of the
butchered Gryffyth.

Not a moment did the Earl lose in proclaiming the Herr-bann; sheaves of
arrows were splintered, and the fragments, as announcing the War-Fyrd,
were sent from thegn to thegn, and town to town. Fresh messengers were
despatched to Gurth to collect the whole force of his own earldom, and
haste by quick marches to London; and, these preparations made, Harold
returned to the metropolis, and with a heavy heart sought his mother, as
his next care.

Githa was already prepared for his news; for Haco had of his own accord
gone to break the first shock of disappointment. There was in this youth
a noiseless sagacity that seemed ever provident for Harold. With his
sombre, smileless cheek, and gloom of beauty, bowed as if beneath the
weight of some invisible doom, he had already become linked indissolubly
with the Earl's fate, as its angel,--but as its angel of darkness!

To Harold's intense relief, Githa stretched forth her hands as he
entered, and said, "Thou hast failed me, but against thy will! grieve
not; I am content!"

"Now our Lady be blessed, mother--"

"I have told her," said Haco, who was standing, with arms folded, by the
fire, the blaze of which reddened fitfully his hueless countenance with
its raven hair; "I have told thy mother that Wolnoth loves his captivity,
and enjoys the cage. And the lady hath had comfort in my words."

"Not in thine only, son of Sweyn, but in those of fate; for before thy
coming I prayed against the long blind yearning of my heart, prayed that
Wolnoth might not cross the sea with his kinsmen."

"How!" exclaimed the Earl, astonished.

Githa took his arm, and led him to the farther end of the ample chamber,
as if out of the hearing of Haco, who turned his face towards the fire,
and gazed into the fierce blaze with musing, unwinking eyes.

"Couldst thou think, Harold, that in thy journey, that on the errand of
so great fear and hope, I could sit brooding in my c