a father, himself on the brink of
the grave, schemes for the worldly grandeur of the son, in which he
confounds and melts his own life, so this sombre and predestined man,
dead to earth and to joy and the emotions of the heart, looked beyond his
own tomb, to that existence in which he transferred and carried on his
ambition.

If the leading agencies of Harold's memorable career might be, as it
were, symbolised and allegorised, by the living beings with which it was
connected--as Edith was the representative of stainless Truth--as Gurth
was the type of dauntless Duty--as Hilda embodied aspiring
Imagination--so Haco seemed the personation of Worldly Wisdom. And cold
in that worldly wisdom Haco laboured on, now conferring with Alred and
the partisans of Harold; now closeted with Edwin and Morcar; now gliding
from the chamber of the sick King.--That wisdom foresaw all obstacles,
smoothed all difficulties; ever calm, never resting; marshalling and
harmonising the things to be, like the ruthless hand of a tranquil fate.
But there was one with whom Haco was more often than with all others--one
whom the presence of Harold had allured to that anxious scene of
intrigue, and whose heart leapt high at the hopes whispered from the
smileless lips of Haco.

CHAPTER VIII.

It was the second day after that which assured him the allegiance of the
thegns, that a message was brought to Harold from the Lady Aldyth. She
was in Oxford, at a convent, with her young daughter by the Welch King;
she prayed him to visit her. The Earl, whose active mind, abstaining
from the intrigues around him, was delivered up to the thoughts, restless
and feverish, which haunt the repose of all active minds, was not
unwilling to escape awhile from himself. He went to Aldyth. The royal
widow had laid by the signs of mourning; she was dressed with the usual
stately and loose-robed splendour of Saxon matrons, and all the proud
beauty of her youth was restored to her cheek. At her feet was that
daughter who afterwards married the Fleance so familiar to us in
Shakespeare, and became the ancestral mother of those Scottish kings who
had passed, in pale shadows, across the eyes of Macbeth [216]; by the
side of that child, Harold to his surprise saw the ever ominous face of
Haco.

But proud as was Aldyth, all pride seemed humbled into woman's sweeter
emotions at the sight of the Earl, and she was at first unable to command
words to answer his greeting.