e,
when the swords of the Norman were already sharpening for contest.
Finally he said, "If a man as fit to defend us as Harold can be found,
let us prefer him: if not----"

"There is no other man!" cried the thegns with one voice. "And," said a
wise old chief, "had Harold sought to play a trick to secure the throne,
he could not have devised one more sure than the tale he hath now told
us. What! just when we are most assured that the doughtiest and
deadliest foe that our land can brave, waits but for Edward's death to
enforce on us a stranger's yoke--what! shall we for that very reason
deprive ourselves of the only man able to resist him? Harold hath taken
an oath! God wot, who among us have not taken some oath at law for which
they have deemed it meet afterwards to do a penance, or endow a convent?
The wisest means to strengthen Harold against that oath, is to show the
moral impossibility of fulfilling it, by placing him on the throne. The
best proof we can give to this insolent Norman that England is not for
prince to leave, or subject to barter, is to choose solemnly in our Witan
the very chief whom his frauds prove to us that he fears the most. Why,
William would laugh in his own sleeve to summon a king to descend from
his throne to do him the homage which that king, in the different
capacity of subject, had (we will grant, even willingly) promised to
render."

This speech spoke all the thoughts of the laymen, and, with Alred's
previous remarks, reassured all the ecclesiastics. They were easily
induced to believe that the usual Church penances, and ample Church
gifts, would suffice for the insult offered to the relics: and,--if they
in so grave a case outstripped, in absolution, an authority amply
sufficing for all ordinary matters,--Harold, as king, might easily gain
from the Pope himself that full pardon and shrift, which as mere earl,
against the Prince of the Normans, he would fail of obtaining.

These or similar reflections soon terminated the suspense of the select
council; and Alred sought the Earl in the oratory, to summon him back to
the conclave. The two brothers were kneeling side by side before the
little altar; and there was something inexpressibly touching in their
humble attitudes, their clasped supplicating hands, in that moment when
the crown of England rested above their House.

The brothers rose, and at Alred's sign followed the prelate into the
council-room. Alred briefly communicated