fight; so doubtless were others; but there was no leader. So far
from there being another Harold or Edmund to risk another battle,
there was not even a leader to carry out the policy of Fabius and
Gyrth.

Meanwhile the Conqueror was advancing, by his own road and after
his own fashion. We must remember the effect of the mere slaughter
of the great battle. William's own army had suffered severely: he
did not leave Hastings till he had received reinforcements from
Normandy. But to England the battle meant the loss of the whole
force of the south-eastern shires. A large part of England was
left helpless. William followed much the same course as he had
followed in Maine. A legal claimant of the crown, it was his
interest as soon as possible to become a crowned king, and that in
his kinsman's church at Westminster. But it was not his interest
to march straight on London and demand the crown, sword in hand.
He saw that, without the support of the northern earls, Edgar could
not possibly stand, and that submission to himself was only a
question of time. He therefore chose a roundabout course through
those south-eastern shires which were wholly without means of
resisting him. He marched from Sussex into Kent, harrying the land
as he went, to frighten the people into submission. The men of
Romney had before the battle cut in pieces a party of Normans who
had fallen into their hands, most likely by sea. William took some
undescribed vengeance for their slaughter. Dover and its castle,
the castle which, in some accounts, Harold had sworn to surrender
to William, yielded without a blow. Here then he was gracious.
When some of his unruly followers set fire to the houses of the
town, William made good the losses of their owners. Canterbury
submitted; from thence, by a bold stroke, he sent messengers who