and procure a mischiefe to follow vnto thy countrie? But God of his
mercie turne that euill hap from this realme, or at the least, if it
be his pleasure, that it must needs come to passe, yet to staie
it till after my daies!" Some by Harolds purposed going ouer into
Normandie, doo gather, that king Edward foresaw the comming of the
Normans; and that he meant nothing lesse, than to performe the
[Sidenote: When the promise was made by king Edward to make duke
William his heire.]
promise made vnto duke William, as to adopt him his heire, which
promise should séeme to be made in time or his banishment, when he
stood in néed of friendship; as the maner of men in such cases is, to
promise much, how so euer they intend to fulfill. But rather it maie
be thought, that king Edward had made no such promise at all, but
perceiued the ambitious desire of duke William, and therefore would
not that anie occasion should be ministred unto him to take hold of.
Wherefore, he was loth that Harold should go ouer vnto him, least that
might happen, which happened in déed.

[Sidenote: _Hen. Hunt._ _Matth. West._ _Fabian_.
Falling out between brethren. The cruell dealing of earle Tostie.]
In the foure and twentieth and last yéere of king Edward his
reigne, or therabout, there fell variance betwixt the two brethren,
earle Harold and earle Tostie at Windsor, where the court then lay, in
so much that earle Harold caught Tostie by the haire of the head in
the kings presence, and stroke him. Heervpon, Tostie departing from
the court in great anger, came to Hereford in the marches of Wales,
where Harolds seruants were preparing for the kings comming to their
maisters house, which seruants he tooke and slue, chopping them in
péeces, and threw into this hogshead of wine a leg, into that barrell
of sider an arme, into this vessell of ale an head: and so into the