A thousand sixe and sixtie yeere it was, as we doe read, When that a comet did appeare, and Englishmen lay dead. Of Normandie, Duke William then to England-ward did sayle,

Who conquered Harold with his men, and brought his land to baile."

HEN William landed at Pevensey Bay, near Hastings, the gallant Harold, just crowned by the people, was in the north of England. William's speech to his army was as short as it was full of meaning; for pointing with one hand to his burning fleet, having ordered its destruction, he stretched out the other, exclaiming, "Behold your

K

country!" Thus was Harold taken at a disadvantage. His fleet which had been for some time hovering round the Cinque Ports, in expectation of the invasion, had but lately, partly upon the supposition that William had abandoned his design, dispersed, and the coast was left without any protection.

When the herald arrived with the news, Harold's reply was, "Sorry am I, that I was not there to meet him. But thus it hath pleased the heavenly King, and everywhere at once could I not be." William occupied himself at once in fortifying his position, and when the Saxon army came up Harold found the invader prepared. William is described as of “good stature, proud of porte, very corsie and bigge-bodied, with a cruele countenance and bald forehead;" his strength was prodigious; he used a bow no other arm could wield, and which he could bend when sitting on horseback, by stretching out the string with his foot.

Harold was "a noble Saxon; his stature remarkably tall, and his limbs finely formed; as brave as he was virtuous." His sister, described as 66 a rose from a thorny stem," was adored as her brother was loved. Seldom have two such leaders met in "field and fray,” as those who led their forces to the ground which still bears the name of Battle.

The Normans had many priests with them, and spent the eve of the fatal day in their orisons, their leader kneeling down in the midst, and vowing to erect an abbey on the spot if victory was given to his arms.

Harold passed his night in prayer; but his army spent the time in revelry and feasting, "carousing, gambolling, and singing." The morning came, and

with it the call to arms. The entreaties of his mother Githa, that Harold would not expose his person on the battle-field, were in vain. She ceased to plead when she found him resolute, but urged another request. My son," said she, "if the prayers and intercessions of those who owe their well-being to thy safety may avail thee, rest assured that the voice of supplication will not be silent here whilst thou art engaged in thy perilous strife. But the issue rests not with us; suffer, then, my son, to follow thee to the field two brothers of thy house; it may be that their valour may be blessed to some good end." Assenting to this he girded on his two-handed sword and hied to the combat. There stood the men of Kent, the Londoners, and the Yorkists, in one impenetrable wedge, armed with axes, spears, bills, clubs, swords, and triangular shields. On the other side the Norman cavalry, archers, and slingers in wondrous force. The two armies closed on the bloody field of Hastings

"While Roland's deeds the Normans sung,
And Saxon shouts responsive rung."

From early morn to sunset the struggle continued. Harold's army stood like a rock. William was hopeless.

What valour could not effect, however, stratagem achieved. The Normans feign retreat. The English eagerly pursue; their invincible line is broken, and the motto older than even Harold's day had its fulfilment—“ Divide and conquer."

A chance arrow struck Harold in the right eye and put it out. He drew it, threw it aside, and in his agony stooped and leaned upon his shield. When the

tall form of the leader was seen to bend, dismay seized the hearts of his followers, as the Normans pressed upon their rallying lines.

The standard of Harold was exposed, and the enemy rushed upon it. The king was then erect and valiantly defending it. His brothers were both slain, and he himself bleeding from many wounds. His gallant bands were dispersed and slain; yet he maintained the conflict as long as strength permitted, and was then cut down by a Norman blade in the hand of an unknown man. The reverse was as sudden as the carnage was fearful. Sad was the scene that Sabbath morning, when the noblest matrons and maidens, bereaved children and old retainers, crowded the gory heath, seeking amidst heaps of wounded, the dying, and the dead. Instead of the repose of the day of prayer, there was a mingled cry, not of humility and thanksgiving, but of loud discordant sacrifice, piercing to the very arch of heaven. Yes, there were many desolated homes and more broken hearts in "merry England" that day; and hers was such who tracked through blood and dust the stricken form of her lost husband. Editha found that which the Normans could not discover, and by the dead body of the noble Harold his faithful wife sank exhausted and never rose alive.

Such was the sad history of Hastings' field, and such the inauguration by William the Conqueror of the Norman rule in England.

THE STOLEN TREASURE.

CHAPTER 11.

I WAITED only till the sound of the carriage wheels had died away, and then ran up-stairs in search of the little girl, whom I found with her ayah, seated on the floor of a spare bedroom, with a number of toys strewed about her in all directions.

I understood that she was about four years old, but she was scarcely larger than most children at two. She was rather pale, and excessively fair, a quantity of flaxen hair curled in her neck; she wore a white frock of Indian muslin, richly worked, and a gold chain with a locket attached to it encircled her throat. Her toys, which consisted of ivory ele. phants richly gilded, models of soldiers and sepoys, bullockcarts, palanquins of gaudy colours, and curious carved balls, made her look, by their large size, all the more fairy-like and small; but her pretty face was not infantine in its expression, and the air of command with which she ordered her ayah to set me a chair, would have been more suited to a reigning princess than to a child who was now to be for many years utterly under the dominion of strangers.

I heard the ayah informing her that the "Beebee Sahib " would soon be back again, and I thought I ought not to interfere and tell her she must not deceive the child; for though I understood most of her words I could not have framed a connected sentence; moreover, the little creature looked at her with a wistful expression of doubt, as if she suspected that these flattering words were too good to be

true.

I asked her if she would kiss me, but this she positively refused to do, and then I asked her if she would come into the garden and have a nosegay, but she was an independent little creature, and when she had risen from the floor, walked up to me and examined me from head to foot, she declined this also, and then commanded her ayah to bring her bonnet, and carry her down into the "compound," by which she meant the garden or yard. So I was left alone among her Indian toys, till my schoolfellows came in from their walk with Caroline at their head. Caroline was reading a letter and looked very much disconcerted, but the other girls were laughing, and they immediately began to question her as to