set before them the horrors which would
come upon the land if the invader succeeded in his enterprise. A loud
shout of assent rose from the whole assembly. Every man pledged his
faith rather to die in arms than to acknowledge any king but Harold.

The king thanked his loyal followers, and at once ordered an immediate
march to the south, an immediate muster of the forces of his kingdom.
London was the trysting-place. He himself pressed on at once with his
immediate following. And throughout the land awoke a spirit in every
English heart which has never died out to this day. The men from various
shires flocked eagerly to the standard of their glorious king. Harold
seems to have reached London on October 5, about ten days after the
fight at Stamford Bridge, and a week after the Norman landing at
Pevensey. Though his royal home was now at Westminster, he went, in
order to seek divine help and succour, to pray at Waltham, the home of
his earlier days, devoting one day to a pilgrimage to the Holy Cross
which gave England her war-cry.

Harold and William were now both eager for the battle. The king set out
from London on October 12. His consummate generalship is nowhere more
plainly shown than in this memorable campaign. He formed his own plan,
and he carried it out. He determined to give battle, but only on his own
ground, and after his own fashion. The nature of the post shows that his
real plan was to occupy a position where the Normans would have to
attack him at a great disadvantage.

William constrained Harold to fight, but Harold, in his turn,
constrained William to fight on ground of Harold's own choosing. The
latter halted at a point distant about seven miles from the headquarters
of the invaders, and pitched his camp upon the ever-memorable heights of
Senlac. It was his policy not to attack. He occupied and fortified a
post of great natural strength, which he speedily made into what is
distinctly spoken of as a castle.

The hill of Senlac, now occupied by the abbey and town of Battle,
commemorates in its later name the great event of which it was the
scene.

The morning of the decisive day, Saturday, October 14, at last had come.
The duke of the Normans heard mass, and received the communion in both
kinds, and drew forth his troops for their march against the English
post. Then in full armour, and seated on his noble Spanish war-horse,
William led his host forth in three divisions. The Normans from the hill
of