all preferment going to Normans. But what is the consequence? They
say now that our church is governed from Rome, whereas before
Edward's time we Englishmen did not think of taking our orders from
Italy.

"There will trouble come of it all, neighbour. Perhaps not so long
as Edward reigns, but at his death. There is but one of the royal
race surviving, and he, like Edward, has lived all his life abroad.
There can be no doubt what the choice of Englishmen will be. Harold
has been our real ruler for years. He is wise and politic as well
as brave, and a great general. He is our own earl, and will assuredly
be chosen. Then we shall have trouble with the Normans. Already
they bear themselves as if they were our masters, and they will not
give up their hold without a struggle. Men say that William, their
duke, makes no secret of his hope to become master of England, in
which case God help us all. But that won't come as long as Harold
lives and Englishmen can wield sword and battle-axe. As for myself,
I have patched many a Norman suit of armour, but, by St. Swithin,
I shall have far more pleasure in marring than I have ever had in
mending them."

"Know you who were the boys who had that contention just now?"

"The Norman is a page of William, our Norman bishop; I know no more
of him than that The other is Wulf, who is a ward and page of Earl
Harold. His father was thane of Steyning in South Sussex, one of
Godwin's men, and at his death two years ago Harold took the lad
into his household, for he bore great affection for Gyrth, who had
accompanied him in his pilgrimage to Rome, and fought by his side
when he conquered the Welsh. It was there Gyrth got the wound that