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Updated: June 24, 2025
Hard is it to tell the distress and the marching and the camping, and the travail, and destruction of men, and also of horses, which the English endured till Harold came; and then luckily came also the good old Leofric, and Bishop Alred the peacemaker, and so strife was patched up Gryffyth swore oaths of faith to King Edward, and Algar was inlawed; and there for the nonce rests the matter now.
"By your leave, brother Alred," said Stigand, who, though from motives of policy he had aided those who besought the King not to peril his crown by resisting the return of Godwin, benefited too largely by the abuses of the Church to be sincerely espoused to the cause of the strong-minded Earl; "By your leave, brother Alred, to every leal heart is a ravenous mouth; and the treasures of the King are well-nigh drained in feeding these hungry and welcomeless visitors.
Alred briefly communicated the result of the conference; and with an aspect, and in a tone, free alike from triumph and indecision, Harold replied: "As ye will, so will I. Place me only where I can most serve the common cause.
King Edward had been induced to send Alred the prelate to the court of the German Emperor, for his kinsman and namesake, Edward Atheling, the son of the great Ironsides. The King of Sweden, however, forwarded the children to the court of Hungary; they were there honourably reared and received. Edmund died young, without issue.
And cold in that worldly wisdom Haco laboured on, now conferring with Alred and the partisans of Harold; now closeted with Edwin and Morcar; now gliding from the chamber of the sick King. That wisdom foresaw all obstacles, smoothed all difficulties; ever calm, never resting; marshalling and harmonising the things to be, like the ruthless hand of a tranquil fate.
"Nay," returned Alred, "no leisure for such hopes, no time to undo what is done by circumstance, and, I fear, by nature. Ere the year is out the throne will stand empty in our halls." "Alas, who then?" murmured Alred. "Who then?" cried the three thegns, with one voice, "why the worthiest, the wisest, the bravest! Stand forth, Harold the Earl, Thou art the man!"
But this Godwin is a man of treachery and wile, and my lord should beware of the fate of murdered Alfred, his brother!" The King started, and pressed his hands to his eyes. "How darest thou, Abbot Fatchere," cried Alred, indignantly; "How darest thou revive grief without remedy, and slander without proof?" "Without proof?" echoed Edward, in a hollow voice.
The King rose in great disorder; and, after pacing the room some moments, disregardful of the silent and scared looks of his Churchmen, waved his hand, in sign to them to depart. All took the hint at once save Alred; but he, lingering the last, approached the King with dignity in his step and compassion in his eyes.
But the stake was too weighty, the suspense too keen, for that reverent delicacy in those around; and the thegns pressed on each other, and a murmur rose, which murmured the name of Harold. "Bethink thee, my son," said Alred, in a tender voice tremulous with emotion; "the young Atheling is too much an infant yet for these anxious times." Edward signed his head in assent.
Alred shook his head and answered: "Man's heart is more strong in the flesh than true to the spirit." "Pardon me, father," said Haco, "if I suggest that your most eloquent and persuasive ally in this, were Edith herself.
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