the lips of his knight, (once thy guest, thy admirer, and friend,)
thus saith William the Norman:--'Though sixty thousand warriors under
the banner of the Apostle wait at his beck, (and from what I see of
thy force, thou canst marshal to thy guilty side scarce a third of the
number,) yet will Count William lay aside all advantage, save what
dwells in strong arm and good cause; and here, in presence of thy
thegns, I challenge thee in his name to decide the sway of this realm
by single battle. On horse and in mail, with sword and with spear,
knight to knight, man to man, wilt thou meet William the Norman?'"

Before Harold could reply, and listen to the first impulse of a
valour, which his worst Norman maligner, in the after day of
triumphant calumny, never so lied as to impugn, the thegns themselves
almost with one voice, took up the reply.

"No strife between a man and a man shall decide the liberties of
thousands!"

"Never!" exclaimed Gurth. "It were an insult to the whole people to
regard this as a strife between two chiefs, which should wear a crown.
When the invader is in our land, the war is with a nation, not a king.
And, by the very offer, this Norman Count (who cannot even speak our
tongue) shows how little he knows of the laws, by which, under our
native kings, we have all as great an interest as a king himself in
our Fatherland."

"Thou hast heard the answer of England from those lips, Sire de
Graville," said Harold: "mine but repeat and sanction it. I will not
give the crown to William in lieu for disgrace and an earldom. I will
not abide by the arbitrement of a Pope who has dared to affix a curse