ng if he had chosen to do so. His authority over
the whole island was paramount and supreme. But, either from a natural
sense of justice toward the rightful heir, or from a dread of the
danger which always attends the usurping of the royal name by one who
is not of royal descent, he made no attempt to take the crown. He
convened a great assembly of all the estates of the realm, and there
it was solemnly decided that Edward should be invited to come to
England and ascend the throne. A national messenger was dispatched to
Normandy to announce the invitation.

It was stipulated in this invitation that Edward should bring very few
Normans with him. He came, accordingly, in the first instance, almost
unattended. He was received with great joy, and crowned king with
splendid ceremonies and great show, in the ancient cathedral at
Winchester. He felt under great obligations to Godwin, to whose
instrumentality he was wholly indebted for this sudden and most
brilliant change in his fortunes; and partly impelled by this feeling
of gratitude, and partly allured by Edith's extraordinary charms, he
proposed to make Edith his wife. Godwin made no objection. In fact,
his enemies say that he made a positive stipulation for this match
before allowing the measures for Edward's elevation to the throne to
proceed too far. However this may be, Godwin found himself, after
Edward's accession, raised to the highest pitch of honor and power.
From being a young herdsman's son, driving the cows to pasture in
a wood, he had become the prime minister, as it were, of the whole
realm, his four sons being great commanding generals in the army, and
his daughter the queen.

The current of life did not flow smoothly with him, after all. We can
not here describe the various difficulties in which he became involved
with the king on account of the Normans, who were continually coming
over from the Continent to join Edward's court, and whose coming
and growing influence strongly awakened the jealousy of the English
people. Some narration of these events will more properly precede the
history of William the Conqueror. We accordingly close this story of
Godwin here by giving the circumstances of his death, as related by
the historians of the time. The readers of this narrative will, of
course, exercise severally their own discretion in determining how far
they will believe the story to be true.

The story is, that one day he was seated at Edward's table, at