, and buried in London,
he ordered it again to be dug up, and to be thrown again into the
river; but it was fished up a second time, and then interred with great
secrecy. Godwin, equally servile and insolent, submitted to be his
instrument in this unnatural and brutal action.

That nobleman knew that he was universally believed to have been an
accomplice in the barbarity exercised on Alfred, and that he was on that
account obnoxious to Hardicanute; and perhaps he hoped, by displaying
this rage against Harold's memory, to justify himself from having had
any participation in his counsels. But Prince Edward, being invited
over by the king, immediately on his appearance preferred an accusation
against Godwin for the murder of Alfred, and demanded justice for that
crime. Godwin, in order to appease the king; made him a magnificent
present of a galley with a gilt stern, rowed by fourscore men, who wore
each of them a gold bracelet on his arm, weighing sixteen ounces,
and were armed and clothed in the most sumptuous manner. Hardicanute,
pleased with the splendor of this spectacle, quickly forgot his
brother's murder; and on Godwin's swearing that he was innocent of the
crime, he allowed him to be acquitted.

Though Hardicanute before his accession had been called over by the
vows of the English, he soon lost the affections of the nation by his
misconduct; but nothing appeared more grievous to them than his renewing
the imposition of danegelt, and obliging the nation to pay a great sum
of money to the fleet which brought him from Denmark. The discontents
ran high in many places: in Worcester the populace rose, and put to
death two of the collectors. The king, enraged at this opposition, swore
vengeance against the city, and ordered three noblemen, Godwin, duke of
Wessex, Siward, duke of Northumberland, and Leofric, duke of Mercia, to
execute his menaces with the utmost rigor. They were obliged to set fire
to the city, and deliver it up to be plundered by their soldiers; but
they saved the lives of the inhabitants, whom they confined in a small
island of the Severn, called Beverey, till, by their intercession, they
were able to appease the king, and obtain the pardon of the supplicants.

This violent government was of short duration. Hardicanute died in two
years after his accession, at the nuptials of a Danish lord, which he
had honored with his presence. His usual habits of intemperance were so
well known, that, notwithstand