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Updated: June 24, 2025
Edward, on whom alone Tostig had relied, had already, with his ordinary vacillation, been swayed towards a right decision, partly by the counsels of Alred and his other prelates, and especially by the representations of Haco, whose grave bearing and profound dissimulation had gained a singular influence over the formal and melancholy King.
When Alred approached the Atheling, with a blending of reverent obeisance and paternal cordiality, the boy carelessly cried, in a barbarous jargon, half German, half Norman-French: "There, come not too near, you scare my hawk. What are you doing? You trample my toys, which the good Norman bishop William sent me as a gift from the Duke. Art thou blind, man?"
The good Bishop Alred, now raised to the See of York, had been summoned from his cathedral seat by Edward, who had indeed undergone a severe illness, during the absence of Harold; and that illness had been both preceded and followed by mystical presentiments of the evil days that were to fall on England after his death.
The prelate shook his head, and the group gained again the ante-hall. "Fit leader of bearded men! fit king for the Saxon land!" cried a thegn. "No more of your Atheling, Alred my father!" "No more of him, indeed!" said the prelate, mournfully. "It is but the fault of his nurture and rearing, a neglected childhood, a Norman tutor, German hirelings. We may remould yet the pliant clay," said Harold.
Then Alred rose erect, and replied, "Did I need subterfuge, O son, I would say, that William himself hath released thy bond, in detaining the hostage against the spirit of the guilty compact; that in the very words themselves of the oath, lies the release 'if God aid thee. God aids no child to parricide and thou art England's child! But all school casuistry is here a meanness.
Alred, O holy father, at whose knees I once confessed my every sin, I blame thee not that thou first, in the Witan, liftest thy voice against me, though thou knowest that I loved Algive from youth upward; she, with her heart yet mine, was given in the last year of Hardicanute, when might was right, to the Church.
Dunstan, where, like Hilarion in his bulrush hive, sepulchro potius quam domu, he could scarce sit, stand, or lie; and the living tombs, sealed with lead, of Thais, and Christina, and other recluses; and the damp dungeon of St. Alred.
And Harold anxiously watched the faces of the assembly, and saw no relenting. And Gurth crept to Harold's side. And the gay Leofwine looked sad. And the young Wolnoth turned pale and trembled. And the fierce Tostig played with his golden chain. And one low sob was heard, and it came from the breast of Alred the meek accuser, God's firm but gentle priest.
Then Alred rose erect, and replied, "Did I need subterfuge, O son, I would say, that William himself hath released thy bond, in detaining the hostage against the spirit of the guilty compact; that in the very words themselves of the oath, lies the release 'if God aid thee. God aids no child to parricide and thou art England's child! But all school casuistry is here a meanness.
His voice died on his lips; his eyes roved wildly round with a haggard stare more imploring than defying. Then rose, in his episcopal stole, Alred the bishop, and his clear sweet voice trembled as he spoke.
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