The Poetical Works of William Lisle Bowles Volume Ii Part 15

CONCLUSION.

William, on his imperial throne, at York Is seated, clad in steel, all but his face, From casque to spur. His brow yet wears a frown, And his eyes show the unextinguished fire Of steadfast vengeance, as his inmost heart Yet labours, like the ocean after storm.

His sword unsheathed appears, which none besides Can wield; his sable beard, full and diffused, 550 Below the casque is spread; the lion ramps Upon his mailed breast, engrailed with gold.

Behind him stand his barons, in dark file[109]

Ranged, and each feature hid beneath the helms; Spears, with escutcheoned banners on their points, Above their heads are raised. Though all alike Are cased in armour, know ye not that knight Who next, behind the king, seems more intent To listen, and a loftier stature bears?

'Tis bold Montgomerie; and he who kneels 560 Before the seat, his armour all with gules Chequered, and chequered his small banneret, Is Lord Fitzalain. William holds a scroll In his right hand, and to Fitzalain speaks: All these, the forfeited domains and land 565 Of Edwin and of Morcar, traitor-lords, From Ely to the banks of Trent, I give To thee and thine!

Fitzalian lowly knelt, And kissed his iron hand; then slowly rose, 570 Whilst all the barons shouted, Live the king!

This is thy song, William the Conqueror, The tale of Harold's children, and the grave Of the last Saxon! The huge fortress frowns Still on the Thames, where William's banner waved, Though centuries year after year have pa.s.sed, As the stream flows for ever at its feet; Harold, thy bones are scattered, and the tomb That held them, where the Lea's lorn wave delayed,[110]

Is seen no more; and the high fane, that heard 580 The Eleeson pealing for thy soul, A fragment stands, and none will know the spot Where those whom thou didst love in dust repose, Thy children! But the tale may not be vain, If haply it awake one duteous thought Of filial tenderness.

That day of blood Is pa.s.sed, like a dark spectre: but it speaks Even to the kingdoms of the earth: Behold 590 The hand of G.o.d! From that dark day of blood, When Vengeance triumphed, and the curfew knolled, England, thy proud majestic policy Slowly arose! Through centuries of shade The pile august of British liberty Towered, till behold it stand in clearer light 596 Ill.u.s.trious. At its base, fell Tyranny Gnashes his teeth, and drops the broken sword; Whilst Freedom, Justice, to the cloudless skies Uplift their radiant forms, and Fame aloft 600 Sounds o'er the subject seas, from east to west, From north to south, her trumpet--England, live!

And rule, till waves and worlds shall be no more!

ILl.u.s.tRATIONS FROM SPEED.

"This victory thus obtained, Duke William wholly ascribed unto G.o.d, and by way of a solemne supplication or procession, gave him the thankes; and pitching for that night his pavilion among the bodies of the dead, the next day returned to Hastings, there to consult upon his great and most prosperously begun enterprise, giving first commandement for the buriall of his slain souldiers.

"But Morcar and Edwin, the unfortunate Queenes' brethren, by night escaping the battaile, came unto London, where, with the rest of the peeres, they beganne to lay the foundation of some fresh hopes; posting thence their messengers to raise a new supply, and to comfort the English (who, through all the land, were stricken into a feareful astonishment with this unexpected newes) from a despairing feare, showing the chance of warre to be mutable, their number many and captaines sufficient to try another field. Alfred, Archbishop of Yorke, there present, and president of the a.s.sembly, stoutly and prudently gave his counsell forthwith to consecrate and crowne young Edgar Atheling (the true heire) for their king, to whom consented likewise both the sea-captaines and the Londoners.

But the Earles of Yorkeshire and Cheshire, Edwin and Morcar (whom this fearefull state of their country could not disswade from disloyaltie and ambition), plotting secretly to get the crown themselves, hindred that wise and n.o.ble designe. In which, while the sorrowfull Queene, their sister, was conueyed to Westchester, where, without state or t.i.tle of a Queene, she led a solitary and quiet life.

"The mother of the slaine King did not so well moderate her womanly pa.s.sions as to receive either comfort or counsell of her friends: the dead body of her sonne shee greatly desired, and to that end sent to the Conquerour two sage brethren of his Abbey at Waltham, who had accompanied him in his unfortunate expedition. Their names (as I finde them recorded in an olde ma.n.u.script) were OseG.o.d and Ailric, whose message to the Conquerour, not without abundance of teares and feare, is there set downe in the tenour as followeth:

"'n.o.ble Duke, and ere long to be a most great and mightie King, we thy most humble servants, dest.i.tute of all comfort (as we would we were also of life) are come to thee as sent from our brethren, whom this dead King hath placed in the monastery of Waltham, to attend the issue of this late dreadfull battaile (wherein G.o.d favouring thy quarrell, he is now taken away and dead, which was our greatest comforter, and by whose onely bountifull goodenesse we were relieved and maintained, whom hee had placed to serve G.o.d in that church). Wherefore wee most humbly request thee (now our dread lord) by that gracious favour which the Lord of lords hath showed unto thee, and for the reliefe of their soules, who in this quarrell have ended their dayes, that it may be lawfull for us by thy good leave safely to take and carry away with us the dead body of the King, the founder and builder of our church and monasterie; as also the bodies of such others as whom, for the reverence of him and for his sake, desired also to be buried with us, that the state of our church by their helpe strengthened, may be the stronger, and endure the firmer.' With whose so humble a request, and abundant teares, the victorious and worthy Duke moved, answered:

"'Your King (said he) unmindfull of his faith, although he have for the present endured the worthy punishment of his fault, yet hath he not therefore deserved to want the honour of a sepulchre or to lie unburied: were it but that he died a King, howsoever he came by the kingdom, my purpose is, for the reverence of him, and for the health of them who, having left their wives and possessions, have here in my quarrel lost their lives, to build here a church and a monastery with an hundred monkes in it, to pray for them for ever, and in the same church to bury your King above the rest, with all honour unto so great a prince, and for his sake to endow the same with great revenewes.'

"With which his courteous speech and promises, the two religious fathers, comforted and encouraged, again replied:

"'Not so, n.o.ble Duke, but grant this thy servants' most humble request, that we may, for G.o.d, by thy leave, receive the dead body of our founder, and to bury it in the place which himself in his lifetime appointed, that wee, cheered with the presence of his body, may thereof take comfort, and that his tombe may be unto our successors a perpetual monument of his remembrance.'

"The Duke, as he was of disposition gracious, and inclined to mercy, forthwith granted their desires, whereupon they drew out stores of gold to present him in way of gratulation, which he not only utterly refused, but also offered them plenty to supply whatsoever should be needfull for the pompe of his funerall, as also for their costs in travaile to and fro, giving strait commandments that none of his souldiers should persume to molest them in this businesse or in their returne. Then went they in haste to the quarry of the dead, but by no meanes could find the body of the King; for the countenances of all men greatly alter by death, but being maimed and imbrued with bloud, they are not known to be the men they were. As for his other regall ornaments which might have shewed him for their King, his dead corps was despoyled of them, either through the greedy desire of prey (as the manner of the field is) or to be the first bringer of such happy news, in hope of a princely reward, upon which purpose many times the body is both mangled and dismembred, and so was this King after his death by a base souldier gasht and hackt into the legge, whom Duke William rewarded for so unsouldier like a deed, cashiering him for ever out of his wages and warres. So that Harold, lying stript, wounded, bemangled, and goared in his bloud, could not be founde nor knowne till they sent for a woman named Editha (for her pa.s.sing beautie surnamed Swan-shals, that is, Swan's-necke), whom hee entertained in secret love before he was King, who by some secret marks of his body, to her well knowne, found him out, and then put into a coffine, was by divers of the Norman n.o.bilitie honourably brought unto the place afterward called Battle Bridge, where it was met by the n.o.bles of England, and, so conveyed to Waltham, was there solemnly and with great lamentation of his mother, royally interred, with this rude epitaph,[111] well beseeming the time, though not the person.

"Goodwine, the eldest son of the King Harold, being growne to some ripenesse of years in y^e life of his father, after his death and overthrow by the Conquerour, took his brother with him and flew over into Ireland, from whence he returned and landed in Somersetshire, slew Edmoth (a baron sometimes of his fathers) that encountered him, and taking great preyes in Devonshire and Cornwell, departed till the next yeare; when, comeing again, he fought with Beorn and Earle of Cornwall, and after retired into Ireland, and thence went into Denmarke to King Swayn, his cosen-german, where he spent the rest of his life.

"Edmund, the second sonne to King Harold, went with his brother into Ireland, returned with him into England, and was at the slaughter and overthrow of Edmoth and his power in Somersetshire, at the spoyles committed in Cornwall and Devonshire, at the conflict with the Cornish Earle Beorn, pa.s.sed, repa.s.sed with him in all his voyages, invasions, and warres, by sea and by land, in England and Ireland; and at the last departed with him from Ireland to Denmarke, tooke part with him of all pleasure and calamitie whatsoever, and attending and depending wholly upon him, lived and died with him in that country.

"Magnus, the third sonne of the King Harold, went with his brothers into Ireland, and returned with them the first time into England, and is never after that mentioned amongst them, nor elsewhere, unlesse (as some conjecture) he be that Magnus, who, seeing the mutability of humane affaires, became an anch.o.r.et, whose epitaph, pointing to his Danish originall, the learned Clarenciaux discovered in a little desolate church at Lewes, in Suss.e.x, where, in the gaping c.h.i.n.ks of an arch in the wall, in a rude and over worne character, certain old imperfect verses were found."

A daughter, whose name is not known, left England with her brothers, and sought refuge with them in Denmark.

Speed quotes Saxo Grammaticus, who says, "She afterwards married Waldemar, King of Russia." To this daughter I have given the name and character a.s.signed to her in the poem.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 90: Part of the abbey remains; but there is no trace of the tomb, which was of gray marble. That portion of the edifice is entirely destroyed.]

[Footnote 91: The river Lea, near which the abbey called Waltham Holy Cross was founded.]

[Footnote 92: There is a quaint epitaph in Speed, describing him as having been buried in a convent at Lewes. I have so far adhered to historical tradition, as to represent him under the character and in the habit of a religious order. The abbey founded by his father seemed more appropriate than a convent or cell at Lewes. The wife of Harold is not introduced at the funeral, as she had fled to a convent.]

[Footnote 93: Altered from the real name for the sake of euphony. I have also taken the liberty of representing the "religious" at Waltham Abbey as monks, although they were in fact canons.]

[Footnote 94: Spurnhead, at the entrance to the Humber.]

[Footnote 95: Fratres Helenae.]

[Footnote 96: This town and castle have vanished, but the name has often been recorded in English history.]

[Footnote 97: A comet appeared at the time of Harold's coronation.]

[Footnote 98: Hardrada of Norway had invaded England a short time before the arrival of William. Harold defeated him with immense slaughter in the north, and was called from thence to a more desperate and fatal struggle.]

[Footnote 99: One family only was saved in the ma.s.sacre of the Normans at York.]

[Footnote 100: Harold's banner had the device of an armed knight.]

[Footnote 101: Robert of Normandy.]

[Footnote 102: William Rufus, called the Red King.]

[Footnote 103: It is a singular fact, that the name of Editha Pulcherrima occurs in Domesday (see Turner).]

[Footnote 104: This temple Camden places at Delgovitia.]

[Footnote 105: William took the field in spring]

[Footnote 106: In some accounts it is said the only inscription on the tomb was, "Infelix Harold."]

[Footnote 107: The Saxon line was restored through the sister of Atheling.]

[Footnote 108: A daughter of Harold married Waldimir of Russia.]

[Footnote 109: The picture is taken from an original, preserved in Drake, in which William and his barons are thus represented. He is shown in the act of presenting his nephew Alain with the forfeited lands of Earl Edwin.]

[Footnote 110: Waltham is, literally, the Ham in the Wold.]

[Footnote 111: For this epitaph, see Speed.]

ST JOHN IN PATMOS.