rs and men of
mail. It distorted the sharpened features of Stigand, the world-man and
the miser, as, passing down, and amidst the group, he said, "Tremble ye
at the dreams of a sick old man?" [218]

CHAPTER II.

The time of year customary for the National Assembly; the recent
consecration of Westminster, for which Edward had convened all his chief
spiritual lords, the anxiety felt for the infirm state of the King, and
the interest as to the impending succession--all concurred to permit the
instantaneous meeting of a Witan worthy, from rank and numbers, to meet
the emergency of the time, and proceed to the most momentous election
ever yet known in England. The thegns and prelates met in haste.
Harold's marriage with Aldyth, which had taken place but a few weeks
before, had united all parties with his own; not a claim counter to the
great Earl's was advanced; the choice was unanimous. The necessity of
terminating at such a crisis all suspense throughout the kingdom, and
extinguishing the danger of all counter intrigues, forbade to men thus
united any delay in solemnising their decision; and the august obsequies
of Edward were followed on the same day by the coronation of Harold.

It was in the body of the mighty Abbey Church, not indeed as we see it
now, after successive restorations and remodellings, but simple in its
long rows of Saxon arch and massive column, blending the first Teuton
with the last Roman masonries, that the crowd of the Saxon freemen
assembled to honour the monarch of their choice. First Saxon king, since
England had been one monarchy, selected not from the single House of
Cerdic--first Saxon king, not led to the throne by the pale shades of
fabled ancestors tracing their descent from the Father-God of the Teuton,
but by the spirits that never know a grave--the arch-eternal givers of
crowns, and founders of dynasties-Valour and Fame.

Alred and Stigand, the two great prelates of the realm, had conducted
Harold to the church [219], and up the aisle to the altar, followed by
the chiefs of the Witan in their long robes; and the clergy with their
abbots and bishops sung the anthems--"Fermetur manus tua," and "Gloria
Patri."

And now the music ceased; Harold prostrated himself before the altar, and
the sacred melody burst forth with the great hymn, "Te Deum."

As it ceased, prelate and thegn raised their chief from the floor, and in
imitation of the old custom of Teuton and Northman--when th