ed, marched, as was his wont, with the body of
footmen. He kept his post in the hollow of the triangular wedge; whence
he could best issue his orders. Avoiding the side over which Tostig
presided, he halted his array in full centre of the enemy, where the
Ravager of the World, streaming high above the inner rampart of shields,
showed the presence of the giant Hardrada.

The air was now literally darkened with the flights of arrows and spears;
and in a war of missives, the Saxons were less skilled than the Norsemen.
Still King Harold restrained the ardour of his men, who, sore harassed by
the darts, yearned to close on the foe. He himself, standing on a little
eminence, more exposed than his meanest soldier, deliberately eyed the
sallies of the horse, and watched the moment he foresaw, when, encouraged
by his own suspense and the feeble attacks of the cavalry, the Norsemen
would lift their spears from the ground, and advance themselves to the
assault. That moment came; unable to withhold their own fiery zeal,
stimulated by the tromp and the clash, and the war hymns of their King,
and his choral Scalds, the Norsemen broke ground and came on.

"To your axes, and charge!" cried Harold; and passing at once from the
centre to the front, he led on the array. The impetus of that artful
phalanx was tremendous; it pierced through the ring of the Norwegians; it
clove into the rampart of shields; and King Harold's battle-axe was the
first that shivered that wall of steel; his step the first that strode
into the innermost circle that guarded the Ravager of the World.

Then forth, from under the shade of that great flag, came, himself also
on foot, Harold Hardrada: shouting and chaunting, he leapt with long
strides into the thick of the onslaught. He had flung away his shield,
and swaying with both hands his enormous sword, he hewed down man after
man till space grew clear before him; and the English, recoiling in awe
before an image of height and strength that seemed superhuman, left but
one form standing firm, and in front, to oppose his way.

At that moment the whole strife seemed not to belong to an age
comparatively modern, it took a character of remotest eld; and Thor and
Odin seemed to have returned to the earth. Behind this towering and
Titan warrior, their wild hair streaming long under their helms, came his
Scalds, all singing their hymns, drunk with the madness of battle. And
the Ravager of the World tossed and f