“Within three days at the farthest,” answered Harold, “thy brothers will be in London. Abide by their counsel; act as they advise at the news of my victory or my fall.”
He paused abruptly, for he heard close beside him the broken voice of Gurth’s bride, in answer to her lord. “Think not of me, beloved; thy whole heart now be England’s. And if—if”—her voice failed a moment, but resumed proudly, “why even then thy wife is safe, for she survives not her lord and her land!”
The King left his wife’s side, and kissed his brother’s bride.
“Noble heart!” he said; “with women like thee for our wives and mothers, England could survive the slaughter of thousand kings.”
He turned, and knelt to Githa. She threw her arms over his broad breast, and wept bitterly.
“Say—say, Harold, that I have not reproached thee for Tostig’s death. I have obeyed the last commands of Godwin my lord. I have deemed thee ever right and just; now let me not lose thee, too. They go with thee, all my surviving sons, save the exile Wolnoth,—him whom now I shall never behold again. Oh, Harold!—let not mine old age be childless!”
“Mother,—dear, dear mother, with these arms round my neck I take new life and new heart. No! never hast thou reproached me for my brother’s death—never for aught which man’s first duty enjoined. Murmur not that that duty commands us still. We are the sons, through thee, of royal heroes; through my father, of Saxon freemen. Rejoice that thou hast three sons left, whose arms thou mayest pray God and his saints to prosper, and over whose graves, if they fall, thou shalt shed no tears of shame!”
Then the widow of King Edward, who (the crucifix clasped in her hands) had listened to Harold with lips apart and marble cheeks, could keep down no longer her human woman’s heart; she rushed to Harold as he still knelt to Githa—knelt by his side, and clasped him in her arms with despairing fondness:
“O brother, brother, whom I have so dearly loved when all other love seemed forbidden me;—when he who gave me a throne refused me his heart; when, looking at thy fair promise, listening to thy tender comfort,—when, remembering the days of old, in which thou wert my docile pupil, and we dreamed bright dreams together of happiness and fame to come,—when, loving thee methought too well, too much as weak mothers may love a mortal son, I prayed God to detach my heart from earth!—Oh, Harold! now forgive me all my coldness. I shudder at thy resolve. I dread that thou should meet this man, whom an oath hath bound thee to obey. Nay, frown not—I bow to thy will, my brother and my King. I know that thou hast chosen as thy conscience sanctions, as thy duty ordains. But come back—Oh, come back—thou who, like me,” (her voice whispered,) “hast sacrificed the household hearth to thy country’s altars,—and I will never pray to Heaven to love thee less—my brother, O my brother!”
In all the room were then heard but the low sounds of sobs and broken exclamations. All clustered to one spot-Leofwine and his betrothed—Gurth and his bride—even the selfish Aldyth, ennobled by the contagion of the sublime emotion,—all clustered round Githa the mother of the three guardians of the fated land, and all knelt before her, by the side of Harold. Suddenly, the widowed Queen, the virgin wife of the last heir of Cerdic, rose, and holding on high the sacred rood over those bended heads, said, with devout passion: