"And now," said the thegn, in conclusion, "canst thou condemn us that
we rose?--no partial rising;--rose all Northumbria! At first but two
hundred thegns; strong in our course, we swelled into the might of a
people. Our wrongs found sympathy beyond our province, for liberty
spreads over human hearts as fire over a heath. Wherever we march,
friends gather round us. Thou warrest not on a handful of rebels,--
half England is with us!"

"And ye,--thegns," answered Harold, "ye have ceased to war against
Tostig, your Earl. Ye war now against the King and the Law. Come
with your complaints to your Prince and your Witan, and, if they are
just, ye are stronger than in yonder palisades and streets of steel."

"And so," said Gamel Beorn, with marked emphasis, "now thou art in
England, O noble Earl,--so are we willing to come. But when thou wert
absent from the land, justice seemed to abandon it to force and the
battle-axe."

"I would thank you for your trust," answered Harold, deeply moved.
"But justice in England rests not on the presence and life of a single
man. And your speech I must not accept as a grace, for it wrongs both
my King and his Council. These charges ye have made, but ye have not
proved them. Armed men are not proofs; and granting that hot blood
and mortal infirmity of judgment have caused Tostig to err against you
and the right, think still of his qualities to reign over men whose
lands, and whose rivers, lie ever exposed to the dread Northern sea-
kings. Where will ye find a chief with arm as strong, and heart as
dauntless? By his mother's side he is allied to your own lineage.
And for the rest, if ye receive him back to his earldom, not only do