arold Hardrada," said Tostig the fierce; "the good
pilot wins his way through all winds, and the brave heart fastens fate to
its flag. All men allow that the North never had warrior like thee; and
now, in the mid-day of manhood, wilt thou consent to repose on the mere
triumph of youth?"

"Nay," said the King, who, like all true poets, had something of the deep
sense of a sage, and was, indeed, regarded as the most prudent as well as
the most adventurous chief in the Northland,--"nay, it is not by such
words, which my soul seconds too well, that thou canst entrap a ruler of
men. Thou must show me the chances of success, as thou wouldst to a
grey-beard. For we should be as old men before we engage, and as youths
when we wish to perform."

Then the traitor succinctly detailed all the weak points in the rule of
his brother. A treasury exhausted by the lavish and profitless waste of
Edward; a land without castle or bulwark, even at the mouths of the
rivers; a people grown inert by long peace, and so accustomed to own lord
and king in the northern invaders, that a single successful battle might
induce half the population to insist on the Saxon coming to terms with
the foe, and yielding, as Ironsides did to Canute, one half of the realm.
He enlarged on the terror of the Norsemen that still existed throughout
England, and the affinity between the Northumbrians and East Anglians
with the race of Hardrada. That affinity would not prevent them from
resisting at the first; but grant success, and it would reconcile them to
the after sway. And, finally, he aroused Hardrada's emulation by the
spur of the news, that the Count of the Normans would seize the prize if
he himself delayed to forestall him.

These various representations, and the remembrance of Canute's victory,
decided Hardrada; and, when Tostig ceased, he stretched his hand towards
his slumbering warships, and exclaimed:

"Eno'; you have whetted the beaks of the ravens, and harnessed the steeds
of the sea!"

CHAPTER VII.

Meanwhile, King Harold of England had made himself dear to his people,
and been true to the fame he had won as Harold the Earl. From the moment
of his accession, "he showed himself pious, humble, and affable [227],
and omitted no occasions to show any token of bounteous liberality,
gentleness, and courteous behaviour."--"The grievous customs, also, and
taxes which his predecessors had raised, he either abolished or
diminished; the ordin