s
invaders, would hasten from all quarters to his assistance, and would
render his army invincible: that at least, if he thought it necessary
to hazard a battle, he ought not to expose his own person, but
reserve, in case of disastrous accidents, some resource to the liberty
and independence of the kingdom: and that having once been so
unfortunate as to be constrained to swear, and that upon the holy
relics, to support the pretensions of the Duke of Normandy, it were
better that the command of the army should be intrusted to another,
who not being bound by those sacred ties, might give the soldiers more
assured hopes of a prosperous issue to the combat.

Harold was deaf to all these remonstrances: elated with his past
prosperity, as well as stimulated by his native courage, he resolved
to give battle in person; and for that purpose he drew near to the
Normans, who had removed their camp and fleet to Hastings, where they
fixed their quarters. He was so confident of success, that he sent a
message to the duke, promising him a sum of money if he would depart
the kingdom without effusion of blood: but his offer was rejected with
disdain; and William, not to be behind with his enemy in vaunting,
sent him a message by some monks, requiring him either to resign the
kingdom, or to hold it of him in fealty, or to submit their cause to
the arbitration of the pope, or to fight him in single combat. Harold
replied, that the God of battles would soon be the arbiter of all
their .differences [r].
[FN [r] Higden, p. 286.]

[MN 14th October.] The English and Normans now prepared themselves
for this important decision; but the aspect of things on the night
before the battle was very different in the two camps. The English
spent the night in riot, and jollity, and disorder; the Normans in
silence, and in prayer, and in the other functions of their religion
[s]. On the morning, the duke called together the most considerable
of his commanders, and made them a speech suitable to the occasion.
He represented to them, that the event which they and he had long
wished for was approaching; the whole fortune of the war now depended
on their swords, and would be decided in a single action: that never
army had greater motives for exerting a vigorous courage, whether they
considered the prize which would attend their victory, or the
inevitable destruction which must ensue upon their discomfiture: that
if their martial and veteran bands coul