onqueror,
The tale of Harold's children, and the grave
Of the last Saxon! The huge fortress frowns
Still on the Thames, where William's banner waved,
Though centuries year after year have passed,
As the stream flows for ever at its feet;
Harold, thy bones are scattered, and the tomb
That held them, where the Lea's lorn wave delayed,[110]
Is seen no more; and the high fane, that heard 580
The Eleeson pealing for thy soul,
A fragment stands, and none will know the spot
Where those whom thou didst love in dust repose,
Thy children! But the tale may not be vain,
If haply it awake one duteous thought
Of filial tenderness.
That day of blood
Is passed, like a dark spectre: but it speaks
Even to the kingdoms of the earth:
Behold 590
The hand of God! From that dark day of blood,
When Vengeance triumphed, and the curfew knolled,
England, thy proud majestic policy
Slowly arose! Through centuries of shade
The pile august of British liberty
Towered, till behold it stand in clearer light 596
Illustrious. At its base, fell Tyranny
Gnashes his teeth, and drops the broken sword;
Whilst Freedom, Justice, to the cloudless skies
Uplift their radiant forms, and Fame aloft 600
Sounds o'er the subject seas, from east to west,
From north to south, her trumpet--England, live!
And rule, till waves and worlds shall be no more!

* * * * *

ILLUSTRATIONS FROM SPEED.

"This victory thus obtained, Duke William wholly ascribed unto God,
and by way of a solemne supplication or procession, gave him the
thankes; and pitching for that night his pavilion among the bodies
of the dead, the next day returned to Hastings, there to consult
upon his great and most prosperously begun enterprise, giving first
commandement for the buriall of his slain souldiers.

"But Morcar and Edwin, the unfortunate Queenes' brethren, by night
escaping the battaile, came unto London, where, with the rest of
the peeres, they beganne to lay the foundation of some fresh hopes;
posting thence their messengers to raise a new supply, and to
comfort the English (who, through all the land, were stricken into
a feareful astonishment with this unexpected