Harold knew that the duke was very angry; and he began to see what an imprudent action he had committed when he had put himself in the power of this ambitious man.
One of the Norman knights, whom he had rescued, came to Harold that evening.
'Do not anger the duke,' he begged. 'You little know his determined will. You are alone, it is useless to resist; and he will find a means of putting you to silence if you oppose him.'
Harold's young brother, Wulfnoth, came to him next
'Do not refuse to give the duke the promise he asks of you,' implored the boy with a pale face. 'I have seen their dungeons and the oubliettes—those dreadful underground cells where a man can scarcely stand upright, where he may spend years without ever seeing the light of day.—O Harold, the duke has sworn to imprison both you and me if you refuse to help him! Promise, Harold, promise; and when you are safe in England no one can make you hold to a promise which has been forced from you.'
Harold passed the night in great perplexity.
Should he refuse to make a promise which he knew that he could not keep?
Then he and his young brother would be cast into these dreadful hiding-places; and they would never be heard of again. In years to come Englishmen might walk over the very turf under which they lay, and not know that beneath their feet the lost earls were still living, buried deep from the blessed sunshine, and the song of the birds, and the faces of their fellow-men.
Would it be right of him to bring such a fate upon his brother?
Then his native land; what would become of England while Harold lay in his dungeon?