"Be ruled, O my son," cried Githa, clasping the Earl's knees, "and do
not let me dread in the depth of the night to see the shade of Godwin,
and hear his voice say, 'Woman, where is Harold?'"

It was impossible for the Earl's strong understanding to resist the
arguments addressed to it; and, to say truth, he had been more
disturbed that he liked to confess by Edward's sinister forewarnings.
Yet, on the other hand, there were reasons against his acquiescence in
Gurth's proposal. The primary, and, to do him justice, the strongest,
was in his native courage and his generous pride. Should he for the
first time in his life shrink from a peril in the discharge of his
duty; a peril, too, so uncertain and vague? Should he suffer Gurth to
fulfil the pledge he himself had taken? And granting even that Gurth
were safe from whatever danger he individually might incur, did it
become him to accept the proxy? Would Gurth's voice, too, be as
potent as his own in effecting the return of the hostages?

The next reasons that swayed him were those he could not avow. In
clearing his way to the English throne, it would be of no mean
importance to secure the friendship of the Norman Duke, and the Norman
acquiescence in his pretensions; it would be of infinite service to
remove those prepossessions against his House, which were still rife
with the Normans, who retained a bitter remembrance of their
countrymen decimated [177], it was said, with the concurrence if not
at the order of Godwin, when they accompanied the ill-fated Alfred to
the English shore, and who were yet sore with their old expulsion from
the English court at the return of his father and himself.

Though it could not enter into his head that William, possessing no