We have now a third picture to draw, and a great one,--that of the
mighty and momentous conflict which ended in the death of the last of
the Saxon kings, and the Norman conquest of England.

The force of William greatly outnumbered that of Harold. It comprised
about sixty thousand men, while Harold had but twenty or thirty
thousand. And the Normans were more powerfully armed, the English having
few archers, while many of them were hasty recruits who bore only
pitchforks and other tools of their daily toil. The English king,
therefore, did not dare to meet the heavily-armed and mail-clad Normans
in the open field. Wisely he led his men to the hill of Senlac, near
Hastings, a spot now occupied by the small town of Battle, so named in
memory of the great fight. Here he built intrenchments of earth, stones,
and tree-trunks, behind which he waited the Norman assault. Marshy
ground covered the English right. In front, at the most exposed
position, stood the "huscarls," or body-guard, of Harold, men clad in
mail and armed with great battle-axes, their habit being to interlock
their shields like a wall. In their midst stood the standard of
Harold,--with the figure of a warrior worked in gold and gems,--and
beside it the Golden Dragon of Wessex, a banner of ancient fame. Back of
them were crowded the half-armed rustics who made up the remainder of
the army.

Duke William had sought, by ravaging the land, to bring Harold to an
engagement. He had until now subsisted by plunder. He was now obliged to
concentrate his forces. A concentrated army cannot feed by pillage.
There was but one thing for the Norman leader to do. He must attack the
foe in his strong position, with victory or ruin as his only
alternatives.