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that at which they had journeyed north.

When within a few miles of Peterborough they received news that seemed

almost too good to be true. Harold at the head of a great army had already

reached that town, and was pressing north at the top of his speed. From

east and west he was being joined by the levies of the thanes. Riding

forward to Peterborough they found the town crowded with troops, who, as

they learned, were to march forward again in half an hour. Wulf at once

made his way to the monastery, in which Harold was lodged.

"I need not ask your news, Wulf," Harold said, as, covered with dust and

mire, and almost reeling with exhaustion, the young thane entered his

private closet.

"The army of the northern earls has been well-nigh destroyed two miles from

York. Whether the earls themselves escaped I know not, for I left the field

while the slaughter was still going on. York will be at once besieged, and

as most of its fighting men went out to the battle and a large proportion

must have been slain, I fear that it can resist but a short time the attack

of the Norsemen. It was good news indeed when I heard that you were

advancing north."

"It is bad tidings that you bring, Wulf, but not unexpected. Directly I

heard that the enemy's fleet were off our northern coast and were burning

and pillaging unopposed, I speedily gathered what force I could in the

South, and sending on messengers ahead to summon the levies of East Anglia

to join me on the way, started north. Yesterday the news reached me that

the great fleet of Norway had sailed up the Humber, and I saw that I should

be too late to join Edwin and Morcar before they were forced to give battle

before York. Now tell me of the fight, and how you managed to escape, for

I see by your mail-coat and helmet, which are dinted and frayed and the

steel rings shorn off in many places, that you were in the thick of it"

Wulf related the story of the battle, and the manner in which he had

escaped.

"You did wisely, Wulf, to mark a way of retreat before the battle

commenced. A good general should ever be prepared for defeat as well as for

victory. So the levies fought well?"

"They did, my lord. They engaged the Norsemen gallantly and well--much

better, indeed, than I had looked for them to do, and the day went

favourably until the King of Norway with his picked men threw themselves

upon them. Even after that they fought sturdily for a short time, and had

there been but a body of housecarls to form a shield-wall, behind which

they could have rallied, the day might still have been theirs. But you

look ill, my lord."

"I was on a bed of sickness when the news came; but it was no time for

lying abed. For the first two or three days' marches I was carried on a

litter, but I am now well enough to sit my horse. It cost me a sore

struggle to leave the South unguarded simply because my orders were not

obeyed here in the North. But there was no help for it, and we have been

marching well-nigh night and day in hopes that we might bring this matter

to a close, and return south before the Norman fleet appears off the coast.

We have already marched farther than would seem possible in the time, but

the men are all in good heart and eager to meet the Norsemen, and I have

addressed them and shown them the urgent necessity for speed. We shall set

forward again in half an hour. They have had six hours for rest, so they

can do another fifty miles before they halt again. You can tarry here for a

day to rest yourself, and can then ride on and overtake us."

"I will go down and take a plunge in the river," Wulf said, "and shall be

ready to mount again by the time that the rearguard is in motion. I could

have kept on to London had it been needful, and shall be quite ready to

proceed with the army."

They were within a day's march of York when the news came that the city had

surrendered without waiting for an assault. The King of Norway had offered

favourable terms; a local Gemot had been held, and it had been agreed to

make peace with Harold of Norway, and not only to receive him as king but

to join him in his warfare against the South. Hostages were given for their

fidelity to their new lord, who in return gave hostages to York for the

good conduct of his troops. It was the city only that had so treacherously

behaved, and the surrender by no means included the whole province. It was

arranged, however, by the earls, that hostages should be given for

Northumbria at large, and they promised that a hundred and fifty of these

should be handed over at Stamford Bridge, eight miles north-east of the

city.

Here there was a palace of the old Northumbrian kings. The spot was

favourable for the encampment of an army, for the country round was fertile

and the bridge across the Derwent afforded facilities for the collection of

provisions over a large area. The bridge was a wooden one, the country on

either side of the river was flat, but considerably elevated above the

stream, with a slope down to it on both sides of the bridge.

The news of the surrender of York made no change in Harold's plans. He had

come to give battle to the Norsemen, whether he did so under the walls of

the northern capital or elsewhere; accordingly he pressed rapidly forward.

In a few hours the army arrived in sight of York, which, had it resisted

but a day longer, would have been saved the humiliation of the surrender

and treaty. The invaders had all marched to Stamford Bridge, and the people

opened its gates and received with rejoicing the king, whose authority they

had the day before cast off. Beyond a short pause for food there was no

delay. Harold's thoughts were on the South, and he grudged every hour that

delayed his return to his post there. The men of the city and the

survivors of the army defeated at Fulford joined the force, which kept on

its way east to Stamford Bridge. The invaders, believing that Northumbria

lay at their feet, and without a thought that Harold was advancing, were

encamped in careless security on the low ground by the river. The greater

portion of their host had crossed the bridge; their king, Tostig, and many

of the great chiefs had taken up their abode in the royal palace at Aldby,

and were preparing to return to York, where the king was to hold his court

and formally to assume the government and to proclaim the laws for his new

kingdom.

Already the cortege had set out, clad not in warlike armour but in court

habiliments, when on the long road leading gently down to the river a cloud

of dust and the sparkle of arms was seen. There was little room for doubt

as to the nature of the arriving force. Northumbria could gather no array

that would venture thus to approach the army that had but five days before

crushed the levies of the North. It could only be Harold himself who, with

the men of the South, had thus unexpectedly arrived. Tostig at once

proposed a retreat to the ships at Riccall, so that the whole army might be

gathered together, but Harold Hardrada strove to marshal his army for the

battle, at the same time sending off mounted messengers to summons the

party left at the ships. But while all was in confusion among the main body

of the invaders on the eastern bank of the river, while men were buckling

on their armour and gathering in their ranks, the cloud of war rolled

rapidly down the descent, and with a mighty shout the English vanguard fell

upon the Norsemen on the western bank.

Valiantly they fought, but there was no resisting the solid array of the

English housecarls, or Thingmen as they were also called. Taken altogether

unprepared, and for the most part without their defensive armour, the

Norsemen could offer no successful resistance to the English host. Great

numbers were killed; others were driven headlong across the bridge or were

drowned in the stream, which is said to have been literally choked with

dead. But for a time the advance of the English was stayed; for one

Norseman, a man of great stature and prodigious strength, took post in the

middle of the narrow bridge and barred the way to the English host. But one

foe could attack him at a time, and so great was his strength and prowess

that it is said forty Englishmen fell under the mighty blows of his

two-handed sword, and at last he was only over-powered by one who made his

way along beneath the timbers of the bridge and stabbed him with his spear

from below.

His gallant stand, however, had sufficed to give his countrymen time to

complete their preparations, and the shield-wall of the Norsemen stretched

across the gentle ascent from the bridge. With his hands raised aloft, as a

sign that his mission was a peaceful one, an English thane with twenty

mounted horsemen rode across the bridge. He was met by the king, Tostig,

and his chiefs. Raising his voice the thane addressed Tostig, "I bring to

Tostig the greeting and message of his brother King Harold. Let him return

to his allegiance and he shall again have the earldom of Northumberland;

nay, he shall have a third of the kingdom to rule together with the king."

"What, then," Tostig asked, "shall be given to King Harold of Norway?"

"Seven feet of English ground!" the thane said sternly, "or more,

perchance, seeing he is taller than other men."

"Return to King Harold of England," Tostig said, "and bid him make ready

for the battle. Never shall men say in Norway that I brought their king

hither to England and then went over to his foes."

Harold's ambassador returned with his men across the river with Tostig's

message, and then in solid array the English Thingmen moved forward to the

attack. Had the King of Norway advanced to the end of the bridge a battle

would have been impossible, for the English could never have forced their

way across. But the kings were equally anxious for a battle. Harold of

Norway knew as well as the King of England that the host of Normandy was on

the point of sailing, and it was as essential for him to crush the English

army before the Normans landed as it was for Harold of England to dispose

at once of the Norse invaders. There were three claimants for the English

crown, and both kings felt the necessity of having their hands free to meet

the Normans. Harold of Norway may well have believed that his host of tried

warriors was capable of disposing of an army that, save for its small body

of regular troops, was wholly unused to war; therefore, he held his array

immovable while the English army crossed the bridge and formed up for

battle.

Steadily and firmly the solid line of the housecarls moved up the assent,

and then as Harold's trumpet gave the signal of attack, flung themselves

upon the shield-wall of the Norsemen. The conflict was a terrible one. The

heavy two-handed axes of the English clashed against the long two-handed

swords of the Norsemen. Against such terrible weapons wielded by such

powerful arms, helmet and hauberk afforded but a poor defence. Casques and

the heads beneath them were cleft like egg-shells under the terrible blows;

but the gaps thus made in the ranks were at once filled from behind, and

for hours the struggle continued with unabated vigour on both sides. Harold

himself with a body of his thanes fought in the front line, his position

marked to his followers by his standard kept flying close behind him. His

great strength and height made him so formidable an assailant that his

standard generally flew well in advance of his fighting line, while on the

other side the still greater height and strength of the King of Norway

rendered him equally conspicuous. At last the obstinate valour of the

English housecarls prevailed over the resistance of the fierce Norsemen,

and the invading host was driven backward step by step up the ascent until

the level ground was reached.

Here the battle again raged as fiercely as ever. In vain did Harold of

Norway, followed by his bravest warriors, hurl himself upon the ranks of

the English, his terrible sword carrying death in its path. In vain did his

followers again and again strive to take the offensive. The English line

ever bore up against their attacks. The battle was still undecided when, as

the sun was going down, an English arrow pierced the throat of the giant

King of Norway. How Tostig, who had throughout the day fought by his side,

fell, we know not, but he died, as did the Irish prince who had brought his

followers to share in the plunder of England. There fell, too, most of the

bravest warriors of Norway, the last of the sea-kings who had carried the

banner, known as the land-waster, far and wide over Europe.

The slaughter was terrible, and at nightfall the Norsemen who survived

broke and fled to the shelter of their ships. Never in the history of

England was there a harder fought battle; never were English valour and

endurance more splendidly shown. Terrible, too, had been the losses on

their side. Many of the king's bravest thanes had fallen, and the ranks of

the housecarls were fearfully thinned. Complete as had been the victory,

absolute as had been the destruction of their foes, there was but little

rejoicing in the English camp that night. So exhausted were the troops by

their long march and the desperate struggle of the day that they threw

themselves down to sleep on the ground they had won, thickly covered as it

was with the bodies of friend and foe.

Wulf throughout the day had fought close to Harold. Osgod had kept close

beside him, and had warded off many a sweeping blow and cut down many a

pressing enemy. At the end of the day his left arm hung useless by his

side, well-nigh cleft off by the blow of a Norseman's sword. Wulf himself

had escaped without a scratch, thanks in a large measure to his follower's

watchfulness. When the battle was over he was one of the few thanes who

gathered round Harold. The latter felt no exultation at this victory. It

had cost him the flower of his army and numbers of his most valued thanes.

It had cost him, too, the life of a brother, to whom in spite of his faults