Somerset and Devon, a mixed and mainly a Celtic race, who bore small
love to the Saxons, drew together against him, and he put them to
flight. [70]

Meanwhile, Godwin and his sons Sweyn, Tostig, and Gurth, who had taken
refuge in that very Flanders from which William the Duke had won his
bride,--(for Tostig had wed, previously, the sister of Matilda, the
rose of Flanders; and Count Baldwin had, for his sons-in-law, both
Tostig and William,)--meanwhile, I say, these, not holpen by the Count
Baldwin, but helping themselves, lay at Bruges, ready to join Harold
the Earl. And Edward, advised of this from the anxious Norman, caused
forty ships [71] to be equipped, and put them under command of Rolf,
Earl of Hereford. The ships lay at Sandwich in wait for Godwin. But
the old Earl got from them, and landed quietly on the southern coast.
And the fort of Hastings opened to his coming with a shout from its
armed men.

All the boatmen, all the mariners, far and near, thronged to him, with
sail and with shield, with sword and with oar. All Kent (the foster-
mother of the Saxons) sent forth the cry, "Life or death with Earl
Godwin." [72] Fast over the length and breadth of the land, went the
bodes [73] and riders of the Earl; and hosts, with one voice, answered
the cry of the children of Horsa, "Life or death with Earl Godwin."
And the ships of King Edward, in dismay, turned flag and prow to
London, and the fleet of Harold sailed on. So the old Earl met his
young son on the deck of a war-ship, that had once borne the Raven of
the Dane.

Swelled and gathering sailed the armament of the English men. Slow up
the Thames it sailed, and on either shore marched tumultuous the