moment of almost reverential silence as he pressed her to his manly
breast, and then arose a cry which made the welkin ring:

"Long life to Edmund and Winifred of Aescendune!"

The bonfires blazed and illuminated the night; the bells (there
were three at S. Wilfred's priory hard by) rang with somewhat
dissonant clamour; strains of music, which would seem very rough
now, greeted the ears; but none the less hearty was the joy.

"The comet--what do you say of the comet now?" said one.

"That it boded ill to the Northmen," was the reply of his
neighbour.

They referred to that baleful visitor, the comet of 1066, which had
turned night into day with its lurid and ghastly light, so that the
very waves of the sea seemed molten in its beams, while the beasts
of the field howled as if they scented the coming banquet of flesh
afar off. Well might they stand aghast who gazed upon this awful
portent, which had seemed to set the southern heavens on fire.

The banquet was spread in the great hall, and the returned warriors
supped with their lord ere they retired to gladden their own
families. Little was said till the desire for eating and drinking
was appeased. But the minstrels sang many a song of the glories of
the English race, particularly of the thanes of Aescendune, and of
the best and noblest warrior amongst them--Alfgar, the companion of
the Ironside, the father of the present earl, who had been borne to
his grave full of years and honour amidst the tears of his people,