"Fair brother, remain here, but give me your troops; I will take the adventure upon me, and will fight William[1]. I have no covenant with him, by oath or pledge; I am in no fealty to him, nor do I owe him my faith. It may chance that there will be no need to come to blows; but I fear that if you fight, you will pay the penalty of perjury, seeing you must forswear yourself; and he who has the right will win. But if I am conquered and taken prisoner, you, if God please, being alive, may still assemble your troops, and fight or come to such an arrangement with the duke, that you may hold your kingdom in peace. Whilst I go and fight the Normans, do you scour the country, burn the houses, destroy the villages, and carry off all stores and provisions, swine and goats and cattle; that they may find no food, nor any thing whatever to subsist upon. Thus you may alarm and drive them back, for the duke must return to his own country if provisions for his army shall fail him."
But Harold refused, and said that Ourth should not go against the duke and fight without him; and that he would not burn houses and villages, neither would he plunder his people. "How," said he, "can I injure the people I should govern? I cannot destroy or harass those who ought to prosper under me."
However all agreed that Gurth's advice was good, and wished him to follow it; but Harold, to shew his great courage, swore that they should not go to the field or fight without him. Men, he said, would hold him a coward, and many would blame him for sending his best friends where he dared not go himself[2]. So he would not be detained, but set out from London, leading his men forward armed for the fight, till he erected his standard and fixed his gonfanon right where THE ABBEY OF THE BATTLE is now built. There he said he would defend himself against whoever should seek him; and he had the place well examined, and surrounded it by a good fosse, leaving an entrance on each of three sides, which were ordered to be all well guarded.
The Normans kept watch and remained throughout the night in arms, and on their guard; for they were told that the English meant to advance and attack them that night. The English also feared that the Normans might attack them in the dark; so each kept guard the whole night, the one watching the other.
At break of day in the morning, Harold rose and Gurth with him. Noble chiefs were they both. Two warhorses were brought for them, and they issued forth from their entrenchment[3]. They took with them no knight, varlet on foot, nor squire; and neither of them bore other arms than shield, lance and sword; their object being to reconnoitre the Normans, and to know where and how they were posted. They rode on, viewing and examining the ground, till from a hill where they stood they could see those of the Norman host, who were near. They saw a great many huts made of branches of trees, tents well equipped, pavilions and gonfanons; and they heard horses neighing, and beheld the glittering of armour. They stood a long while without speaking; nor do I know what they did, or what they said, or what counsel they held together there; but on their return to their tent Harold spoke first.
"Brother," said he, "yonder are many people, and the Normans are very good knights, and well used to bear arms. What say you? what do you advise? With so great a host against us, I dare not do otherwise than fall back upon London: I will return thither and assemble a larger army."
"Harold!" said Garth, "thou base coward! This counsel has come too late; it is of no use now to flinch, we must move onward. Base coward! when I advised you, and got the barons also to beseech you, to remain at London and let me fight, you would not listen to us, and now you must take the consequence. You would take no heed of any thing we could say; you believed not me or any one else; now you are willing, but I will not. You have lost your pride too soon; quickly indeed has what you have seen abated your courage. If you should turn back now, every one would say that you ran away. If men see you flee, who is to keep your people together? and if they once disperse, they will never be brought to assemble together again,"
Thus Harold and Gurth disputed, till their words grew angry, and Gurth would have struck his brother, had he not spurred his horse on, so that the blow missed, and struck the horse behind the saddle, glancing along Harold's shield. Had it gone aright, it would have felled him to the ground. Gurth thus vented his humour, charging his brother with cowardice; but they galloped on to the tents, and shewed no sign of their dispute, neither let any ill will appear between them, when they saw their people coming. Lewine, Harold's next brother after Gurth, had also arisen early, and gone to Harold's tent; and when he found not his two brothers where he left them over night, he thought he should see them no more. "By Heaven," cried he, "they have been taken and delivered to their enemies;" for he thought they must either have been killed, or betrayed to the Normans; and he ran forth like a madman, shouting and crying out as if he had lost his senses. But when he learned where they were, and that they had gone out to reconnoitre the Normans, he and his companions, and the earls and barons, mounted quickly upon their horses, and set out from the tents; when behold! they met the brothers. The barons took it ill that they went so imprudently, and without any guard; but all turned back to the tents, and prepared for battle.
When they came in front of the enemy, the sight alarmed them grievously; and Harold sent forth two spies[4] to reconnoitre the opposite troops, and see what barons and armed men the duke had brought with him. As they drew near to his army, they were observed, and being taken before William, were sore afraid. But when he learnt what was their errand, and that they wanted to estimate his strength, he had them taken through all the tents, and shewed the whole host to them. Then he used them exceeding well, gave them abundantly to eat and drink, and let them go without injury or molestation.
When they returned to their lord, they spoke very honourably of the duke; and one of them, who had seen that the Normans were so close shaven and cropt, that they had not even moustaches, supposed he had seen priests and mass-sayers; and he told Harold that the duke had more priests with him than knights or other people. But Harold replied, "Those are valiant knights, bold and brave warriors, though they bear not beards or moustaches as we do."