k ship
for Flanders.

CHAPTER IX.

Gurth and Harold were seated in close commune in the Earl's chamber, at
an hour long after the complin (or second vespers), when Alred entered
unexpectedly. The old man's face was unusually grave, and Harold's
penetrating eye saw that he was gloomy with some matters of great moment.

"Harold," said the prelate, seating himself, "the hour has come to test
thy truth, when thou saidst that thou wert ready to make all sacrifice to
thy land, and further, that thou wouldst abide by the counsel of those
free from thy passions, and looking on thee only as the instrument of
England's weal."

"Speak on, father," said Harold, turning somewhat pale at the solemnity
of the address; "I am ready, if the council so desire, to remain a
subject, and aid in the choice of a worthier king."

"Thou divinest me ill," answered Alred; "I do not call on thee to lay
aside the crown, but to crucify the heart. The decree of the Witan
assigns Mercia and Northumbria to the sons of Algar. The old
demarcations of the heptarchy, as thou knowest, are scarce worn out; it
is even now less one monarchy, than various states retaining their own
laws, and inhabitated by different races, who under the sub-kings, called
earls, acknowledge a supreme head in the Basileus of Britain. Mercia hath
its March law and its prince; Northumbria its Dane law and its leader.
To elect a king without civil war, these realms, for so they are, must
unite with and sanction the Witans elsewhere held. Only thus can the
kingdom be firm against foes without and anarchy within; and the more so,
from the alliance between the new earls of those great provinces and the
House of Gryffyth, which still lives in Caradoc his son. What if at
Edward's death Mercia and Northumbria refuse to sanction thy accession?
What if, when all our force were needed against the Norman, the Welch
broke loose from their hills, and the Scots from their moors! Malcolm of
Cumbria, now King of Scotland, is Tostig's dearest friend, while his
people side with Morcar. Verily these are dangers enow for a new king,
even if William's sword slept in its sheath."

"Thou speakest the words of wisdom," said Harold, "but I knew beforehand
that he who wears a crown must abjure repose."

"Not so; there is one way, and but one, to reconcile all England to thy
dominion--to win to thee not the cold neutrality but the eager zeal of
Mercia and Northumbria; to make the first gua