population [18]. At the time our story opens, these Northmen, under
the common name of Danes, were peaceably settled in no less than
fifteen [19] counties in England; their nobles abounded in towns and
cities beyond the boundaries of those counties which bore the distinct
appellation of Danelagh. They were numerous in London: in the
precincts of which they had their own burial-place, to the chief
municipal court of which they gave their own appellation--the Hustings
[20]. Their power in the national assembly of the Witan had decided
the choice of kings. Thus, with some differences of law and dialect,
these once turbulent invaders had amalgamated amicably with the native
race [21]. And to this day, the gentry, traders, and farmers of more
than one-third of England, and in those counties most confessed to be
in the van of improvement, descend from Saxon mothers indeed, but from
Viking fathers. There was in reality little difference in race
between the Norman knight of the time of Henry I. and the Saxon
franklin of Norfolk and York. Both on the mother's side would most
probably have been Saxon, both on the father's would have traced to
the Scandinavian.

But though this character of adaptability was general, exceptions in
some points were necessarily found, and these were obstinate in
proportion to the adherence to the old pagan faith, or the sincere
conversion to Christianity. The Norwegian chronicles, and passages in
our own history, show how false and hollow was the assumed
Christianity of many of these fierce Odin-worshippers. They willingly
enough accepted the outward sign of baptism, but the holy water
changed little of the inner man. Even Harold, the son of Canute,
scarce seventeen years before the date we have now entered, being
unable to obtain from the Archbishop of Canterbury--who had espoused
the cause of his brother Hardicanute--the consecrating benediction,