"He will be in no danger; he shall tarry with old Guthlac by the
stuff. There will be many present like him, and whatever may chance
to me or others, there can be no danger to them, for victory must
follow our Harold. Hadst thou seen him at the Bridge thou couldst
not doubt; he is the Ironside alive again, and as great as a
general as a warrior.

"And now, dearest, a faint heart is faithlessness to God; let us
commit ourselves in prayer to Him, and sleep together in peace."

The eastern sky was aglow with the coming dawn when they arose.
Soon all was bustle in the precincts, the neighing of horses, the
clatter of arms; then came the hasty meal, the long lingering
farewell; and the husband and father rode away with his faithful
retainers; his boy, full of spirits, by his side, waving his plumed
cap to mother and sister as they watched the retiring band until
lost in the distance.

They retired, the Lady Winifred and her daughter Edith, to the
summit of the solitary tower, which arose over the entrance gate of
the hall; there, with eyes fast filling with tears, they watched
the departing band as it entered into the forest, then gorgeous
with all the tints of autumn, the golden tints of the ash and elm,
the reddish-brown of the beech--all combining to make a picture,
exceeding even the tender hues of spring in beauty.

But all this loveliness was the beauty of decay, the prelude to the
fall of the leaf; the forests were but arrayed in their richest
garb for the coming death of winter.