swarming multitudes. And King Edward sent after more help, but it
came up very late. So the fleet of the Earl nearly faced the Julliet
Keape of London, and abode at Southwark till the flood-tide came up.
When he had mustered his host, then came the flood tide. [74]




CHAPTER II.


King Edward sate, not on his throne, but on a chair of state, in the
presence-chamber of his palace of Westminster. His diadem, with the
three zimmes shaped into a triple trefoil [75] on his brow, his
sceptre in his right hand. His royal robe, tight to the throat, with
a broad band of gold, flowed to his feet; and at the fold gathered
round the left knee, where now the kings of England wear the badge of
St. George, was embroidered a simple cross [76]. In that chamber met
the thegns and proceres of his realm; but not they alone. No national
Witan there assembled, but a council of war, composed at least one
third part of Normans--counts, knights, prelates, and abbots of high
degree.

And King Edward looked a king! The habitual lethargic meekness had
vanished from his face, and the large crown threw a shadow, like a
frown, over his brow. His spirit seemed to have risen from the weight
it took from the sluggish blood of his father, Ethelred the Unready,
and to have remounted to the brighter and earlier sources of ancestral
heroes. Worthy in that hour he seemed to boast the blood and wield
the sceptre of Athelstan and Alfred. [77]