roduced--to apply the
gloomy predictions which they imagined these dreams expressed, to
themselves. Their chief, however, was of too desperate and determined a
character to pay any regard to such influences. He set sail. His
armament crossed the German Sea in safety, and joined Tostig on the
coast of Scotland. The combined fleet moved slowly southward, along the
shore, watching for an opportunity to land.

[Illustration: THE NORWEGIANS AT SCARBOROUGH.]

They reached, at length, the town of Scarborough, and landed to attack
it. The inhabitants retired within the walls, shut the gates, and bid
the invaders defiance. The town was situated under a hill, which rose in
a steep acclivity upon one side. The story is, that the Norwegians went
upon this hill, where they piled up an enormous heap of trunks and
branches of trees, with the interstices filled with stubble, dried
bark, and roots, and other such combustibles, and then setting the whole
mass on fire, they rolled it down into the town--a vast ball of fire,
roaring and crackling more and more, by the fanning of its flames in the
wind, as it bounded along. The intelligent reader will, of course, pause
and hesitate, in considering how far to credit such a story. It is
obviously impossible that any mere _pile_, however closely packed, could
be made to roll. But it is, perhaps, not absolutely impossible that
trunks of trees might be framed together, or fastened with wet thongs or
iron chains, after being made in the form of a rude cylinder or ball,
and filled with combustibles within, so as to retain its integrity in
such a descent.

The account states that this strange method of bombardment was
successful. The town was set on fire; the people surrendered. Tostig and
the Norwegians plundered it, and then, embarking again in their ships,
they continued their voyage.

The intelligence of this descent upon his northern coasts reached Harold
in London toward the close of September, just as he was withdrawing his
forces from the southern frontier, as was related in the last chapter,
under the idea that the Norman invasion would probably be postponed
until the spring; so that, instead of sending his troops into their
winter quarters, he had to concentrate them again with all dispatch, and
march at the head of them to the north, to avert this new and unexpected
danger.

While King Harold was thus advancing to meet them, Tostig and his
Norwegian allies entered the River Humber.