in my absence, left there a name so beloved, that had I stayed a year
longer, the cry had been 'Algar', not 'Godwin'?--for so is the
multitude ever! Now aid me, Harold, for my soul is troubled, and I
cannot work alone; and though I say naught to others, my heart
received a death-blow when tears fell from its blood-springs on the
brow of Sweyn, my first-born." The old man paused, and his lip
quivered.

"Thou, thou alone, Harold, noble boy, thou alone didst stand by his
side in the hall; alone, alone, and I blessed thee in that hour over
all the rest of my sons. Well, well! now to earth again. Aid me,
Harold. I open to thee my web: complete the woof when this hand is
cold. The new tree that stands alone in the plain is soon nipped by
the winter; fenced round with the forest, its youth takes shelter from
its fellows [111]. So is it with a house newly founded; it must win
strength from the allies that it sets round its slender stein. What
had been Godwin, son of Wolnoth, had he not married into the kingly
house of great Canute? It is this that gives my sons now the right to
the loyal love of the Danes. The throne passed from Canute and his
race, and the Saxons again had their hour; and I gave, as Jephtha gave
his daughter, my blooming Edith, to the cold bed of the Saxon King.
Had sons sprung from that union, the grandson of Godwin, royal alike
from Saxon and Dane, would reign on the throne of the isle. Fate
ordered otherwise, and the spider must weave web anew. Thy brother,
Tostig, has added more splendour than solid strength of our line, in
his marriage with the daughter of Baldwin the Count. The foreigner
helps us little in England. Thou, O Harold, must bring new props to
the House. I would rather see thee wed to the child of one of our
great rivals than to the daughter of kaisar, or outland king. Siward
hath no daughter undisposed of. Algar, son of Leofric, hath a