d behind them, fast as they
could, spurred two others, who bore on high, one the pennon of Mercia,
one the red lion of North Wales. Right to the embankment and palisade
which begirt Mortar's camp rode the riders; and the head of the foremost
was bare, and the guards knew the face of Edwin the Comely, Mortar's
brother. Morcar stepped down from the mound on which he stood, and the
brothers embraced amidst the halloos of the forces.

"And welcome, I pray thee," said Morcar, "our kinsman Caradoc, son of
Gryffyth [212] the bold."

So Morcar reached his hand to Caradoc, stepson to his sister Aldyth, and
kissed him on the brow, as was the wont of our fathers. The young and
crownless prince was scarce out of boyhood, but already his name was sung
by the bards, and circled in the halls of Gwynedd with the Hirlas horn;
for he had harried the Saxon borders, and given to fire and sword even
the fortress of Harold himself.

But while these three interchanged salutations, and ere yet the mixed
Mercians and Welch had gained the encampment, from a curve in the
opposite road, towards Towcester and Dunstable, broke the flash of mail
like a river of light, trumpets and fifes were heard in the distance; and
all in Morcar's host stood hushed but stern, gazing anxious and afar, as
the coming armament swept on. And from the midst were seen the Martlets
and Cross of England's king, and the Tiger heads of Harold; banners
which, seen together, had planted victory on every tower, on every field,
towards which they had rushed on the winds.

Retiring, then, to the central mound, the chiefs of the insurgent force
held their brief council.

The two young Earls, whatever their ancestral renown, being yet new
themselves to fame and to power, were submissive to the Anglo-Dane
chiefs, by whom Morcar had been elected. And these, on recognising the
standard of Harold, were unanimous in advice to send a peaceful
deputation, setting forth their wrongs under Tostig, and the justice of
their cause. "For the Earl," said Gamel Beorn (the head and front of
that revolution,) "is a just man, and one who would shed his own blood
rather than that of any other freeborn dweller in England; and he will do
us right."

"What, against his own brother?" cried Edwin.

"Against his own brother, if we convince but his reason," returned the
Anglo-Dane.

And the other chiefs nodded assent. Caradoc's fierce eyes flashed fire;
but he played with his torque, and s