"Seignors," said Gurth, "I know and see that you are in great alarm; that you fear the event of the battle, and desire an arrangement: and so do I as much, and in truth more, I believe; but I have also great fear of duke William, who is very full of treachery. You have heard what he says, and how low he rates us, and how he will only give us what he likes of a land which is not his yet. If we take what he offers, and go beyond the Humber, he will not long leave us even that, but will push us yet further. He will always keep his eye upon us, and bring us to ruin in the end. When he has got the uppermost, and has the best of the land, he will leave little for us, and will soon try to take it all. He wants to cheat us into taking instead of a rich country, a poor portion of one, and presently he will have even that. I have another fear, which is more on your than on my own account, for I think I could easily secure myself. He has given away all your lands to knights of other countries. There is neither earl nor baron to whom he has not made some rich present: there is no earldom, barony, nor chatelainie, which he has not given away: and I tell you for a truth, that he has already taken homage from many, for your inheritances which he has given them. They will chase you from your lands, and still worse, will kill you. They will pillage your vassals, and ruin your sons and daughters: they do not come merely for your goods, but utterly to ruin you and your heirs. Defend yourselves then and your children, and all that belong to you, while you may. My brother hath never given away, nor agreed to give away the great fiefs, the honors, or lands of your ancestors; but earls have remained earls, and barons enjoyed their rights; the sons have had their lands and fiefs after their fathers' deaths: and you know this to be true which I tell you, that peace was never disturbed. We may let things remain thus if we will, and it is best for us so to determine. But if you lose your houses, your manors, demesnes, and other possessions, where you have been nourished all your lives, what will you become, and what will you do? Into what country will you flee, and what will become of your kindred, your wives and children? In what land will they go begging, and where shall they seek an abode? When they thus lose their own honour, how shall they seek it of others?"
By these words of Gurth, and by others which were said at his instance, and by pledges from Harold to add to the fiefs of the barons, and by his promises of things which were then out of his power to give, the English were aroused, and swore by God, and cried out, that the Normans had come on an evil day, and had embarked on a foolish matter. Those who had lately desired peace, and feared the battle, now carried themselves boldly, and were eager to fight; and Gurth had so excited the council, that no man who had talked of peace would have been listened to, but would have been reproved by the most powerful there[2].
[1] William of Poitiers mentions only the last of these proposals, and says that it greatly alarmed Harold; on the same grounds, no doubt, as Gurth had urged, against a vassal's coming into personal conflict with one to whom he was bound in fealty, especially when ratified by an oath; notwithstanding an entirely fraudulent creation of the pledge in the first instance.
[2] Benoit follows the story that Harold had planned a surprise on William's army, and had sent another force round by sea to intercept his retreat.
La nuit que li ceus fu teniègres,
Soprendre quidout l'ost Normant
En la pointe del ajornant,
Si qu'el champ out ses gens armées
E ses batailles devisées:
Enz la mer out fait genz entrer
Por ceus prendre, por ceus garder
Qui de la bataille fuireient,
E qui as nefs revertireient.
Treis cenz en i orent e plus.
Dès ore ne quident que li dux
Lor puisse eschaper, ne seit pris,
Ou en la grant bataille occis.
