ch should rise on the field of blood, and
the high altar should mark the spot where his adversary had fallen.
And for the matter of water: if that were lacking, well, wine should be
more plentiful in the new Abbey than water in other religious houses.
Thus came the venerable Abbey of St. Martin into existence.

The story of the battle is perhaps the most fascinating in all our
catalogue of worthy fights. When William landed on these shores Harold
was at York, recuperating after the superhuman efforts which culminated
in the battle of Stamford Bridge, where he entirely defeated an
invading force under Harold Haardrada and his own brother, Tostig. He
had marched two hundred miles or more to defeat one foe, and it was now
necessary for him to carry out a still greater expedition to engage a
second. He halted several days in the capital while the process of
collecting troops from the midlands and the south went on. At last, on
October the twelfth, he moved on to meet William. With him he took but
a small army. Had he waited just a short time longer (the delay would
not have mattered, for William had no intention of leaving the coast)
he could have gathered a force sufficiently large to overwhelm the
invaders; but he made the common mistake of holding the enemy too
cheaply. A series of forced marches commenced in the hopes of catching
William unawares came to nought, owing to the vigilance of the Duke's
marauding bands. On the night of the thirteenth he arrived at the
fatal hill, and pitched his camp on the site of the present town of
Battle.

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[Illustration: THE GATEWAY, BATTLE ABBEY]

The Abbey was erected on the field of the Battle of Hastings. The
gateway was added in 1338 to the work begun by William the Conqueror.

(_See page 36_)

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Harold apparently knew this part of Sussex quite well, being the lord
of several manors round about; and so his well-chosen ground does not
surprise us. A long spur of upland here thrusts out boldly from the
main mass of wooded hill-side, and commands a view over a wide stretch
of rolling ground away to the sea. On a crest of this spur he ranged
his army, with the mailed warriors in front forming a continuous
shield-wall.

The descriptions of the night before the battle--all from Norman
sources, by the way--make vastly interesting