knight fit to be a chief. And on this
space William reviewed his army, and there planned and schemed, rehearsed
and re-formed, all the stratagems the great day might call forth. But
more careful, and laborious, and minute, was he in the manoeuvre of a
feigned retreat. Not ere the acting of some modern play, does the
anxious manager more elaborately marshal each man, each look, each
gesture, that are to form a picture on which the curtain shall fall
amidst deafening plaudits than did the laborious captain appoint each
man, and each movement, in his lure to a valiant foe:--The attack of the
foot, their recoil, their affected panic, their broken exclamations of
despair;--their retreat, first partial and reluctant, next seemingly
hurried and complete,--flying, but in flight carefully confused:--then
the settled watchword, the lightning rally, the rush of the cavalry from
the ambush; the sweep and hem round the pursuing foe, the detachment of
levelled spears to cut off the Saxon return to the main force, and the
lost ground,--were all directed by the most consummate mastership in the
stage play, or upokrisis, of war, and seized by the adroitness of
practised veterans.

Not now, O Harold! hast thou to contend against the rude heroes of the
Norse, with their ancestral strategy unimproved! The civilisation of
Battle meets thee now!--and all the craft of the Roman guides the manhood
of the North.

It was in the midst of such lessons to his foot and his horsemen--spears
gleaming--pennons tossing--lines reforming--steeds backing, wheeling,
flying, circling--that William's eye blazed, and his deep voice thundered
the thrilling word; when Mallet de Graville, who was in command at one of
the outposts, rode up to him at full speed, and said in gasps, as he drew
breath:

"King Harold and his army are advancing furiously. Their object is
clearly to come on us unawares."

"Hold!" said the Duke, lifting his hand; and the knights around him
halted in their perfect discipline; then after a few brief but distinct
orders to Odo, Fitzosborne, and some other of his leading chiefs, he
headed a numerous cavalcade of his knights, and rode fast to the outpost
which Mallet had left,--to catch sight of the coming foe.

The horsemen cleared the plain--passed through a wood, mournfully fading
into autumnal hues--and, on emerging, they saw the gleam of the Saxon
spears rising on the brows of the gentle hills beyond. But even the
time, short