ment, and uniting themselves against the common
enemy. The two potent earls, Edwin and Morcar, who had fled to London
with the remains of the broken army, took the lead on this occasion:
in concert with Stigand, Archbishop of Canterbury, a man possessed of
great authority and of ample revenues, they proclaimed Edgar, and
endeavoured to put the people in a posture of defence, and encouraged
them to resist the Normans [a]. But the terror of the late defeat,
and the near neighbourhood of the invaders, increased the confusion
inseparable from great revolutions: and every resolution proposed was
hasty, fluctuating, tumultuary; disconcerted by fear or faction,
ill-planned, and worse executed.
[FN [a] Gul. Pictav. p. 205. Order. Vitalis, p. 502. Hoveden, p.
449. Knyghton, p. 2343.]

William, that his enemies might have no leisure to recover from their
consternation, or unite their councils, immediately put himself in
motion after his victory, and resolved to prosecute an enterprise
which nothing but celerity and vigour could render finally successful.
His first attempt was against Romney, whose inhabitants he severely
punished, on account of their cruel treatment of some Norman seamen
and soldiers, who had been carried thither by stress of weather, or by
a mistake in their course [b]; and foreseeing that his conquest of
England might still be attended with many difficulties and with much
opposition, he deemed it necessary, before he should advance farther
into the country, to make himself master of Dover, which would both
secure him a retreat in case of adverse fortune, and afford him a safe
landing-place for such supplies as might be requisite for pushing his
advantages. The terror diffused by his victory at Hastings was so
great, that the garrison of Dover, though numerous and well provided,
immediately capitulated; and as the Normans, rushing in to take
possession of the town, hastily set fire to some of the houses,
William, desirous to conciliate the minds of the English by an
appearance of lenity and justice, made compensation to the inhabitants
for their losses [c].
[FN [b] Gul. Pictav. p. 204. [c] Gul. Pictav. p. 204.]

The Norman army, being much distressed with a dysentery, was obliged
to remain here eight days, but the duke, on their recovery, advanced
with quick marches towards London, and by his approach increased the
confusions which were already so prevalent in the English councils.
The ecclesiastics in