to permit the instantaneous meeting of a Witan worthy, from rank and
numbers, to meet the emergency of the time, and proceed to the most
momentous election ever yet known in England. The thegns and prelates
met in haste. Harold's marriage with Aldyth, which had taken place
but a few weeks before, had united all parties with his own; not a
claim counter to the great Earl's was advanced; the choice was
unanimous. The necessity of terminating at such a crisis all suspense
throughout the kingdom, and extinguishing the danger of all counter
intrigues, forbade to men thus united any delay in solemnising their
decision; and the august obsequies of Edward were followed on the same
day by the coronation of Harold.

It was in the body of the mighty Abbey Church, not indeed as we see it
now, after successive restorations and remodellings, but simple in its
long rows of Saxon arch and massive column, blending the first Teuton
with the last Roman masonries, that the crowd of the Saxon freemen
assembled to honour the monarch of their choice. First Saxon king,
since England had been one monarchy, selected not from the single
House of Cerdic--first Saxon king, not led to the throne by the pale
shades of fabled ancestors tracing their descent from the Father-God
of the Teuton, but by the spirits that never know a grave--the arch-
eternal givers of crowns, and founders of dynasties-Valour and Fame.

Alred and Stigand, the two great prelates of the realm, had conducted
Harold to the church [219], and up the aisle to the altar, followed by
the chiefs of the Witan in their long robes; and the clergy with their
abbots and bishops sung the anthems--"Fermetur manus tua," and "Gloria
Patri."

And now the music ceased; Harold prostrated himself before the altar,