Act V - Page 2

foundation For men who serve the neighbour, not themselves, I cast me down prone, praying; and, when I rose, They told me that the Holy Rood had lean'd And bow'd above me; whether that which held it Had weaken'd, and the Rood itself were bound To that necessity which binds us down; Whether it bow'd at all but in their fancy; Or if it bow'd, whether it symbol'd ruin Or glory, who shall tell? but they were sad, And somewhat sadden'd me.

GURTH. Yet if a fear, Or shadow of a fear, lest the strange Saints By whom thou swarest, should have power to balk Thy puissance in this fight with him, who made And heard thee swear--brother--I have not sworn-- If the king fall, may not the kingdom fall? But if I fall, I fall, and thou art king; And, if I win, I win, and thou art king; Draw thou to London, there make strength to breast Whatever chance, but leave this day to me.

LEOFWIN (entering). And waste the land about thee as thou goest, And be thy hand as winter on the field, To leave the foe no forage.

HAROLD. Noble Gurth! Best son of Godwin! If I fall, I fall-- The doom of God! How should the people fight When the king flies? And, Leofwin, art thou mad? How should the King of England waste the fields Of England, his own people?--No glance yet Of the Northumbrian helmet on the heath?

LEOFWIN. No, but a shoal of wives upon the heath, And someone saw thy willy-nilly nun Vying a tress against our golden fern.

HAROLD. Vying a tear with our cold dews, a sigh With these low-moaning heavens. Let her be fetch'd. We have parted from our wife without reproach, Tho' we have dived thro' all her practices; And that is well.

LEOFWIN. I saw her even now: She hath not left us.

HAROLD. Nought of Morcar then?

GURTH. Nor seen, nor heard; thine, William's or his own As wind blows, or tide flows: belike he watches, If this war-storm in one of its rough rolls Wash up that old crown of Northumberland.

HAROLD. I married her for Morcar--a sin against The truth of love. Evil for good, it seems, Is oft as childless of the good as evil For evil.

LEOFWIN. Good for good hath borne at times A bastard false as William.

HAROLD. Ay, if Wisdom Pair'd not with Good. But I am somewhat worn, A snatch of sleep were like the peace of God. Gurth, Leofwin, go once more about the hill-- What did the dead man call it--Sanguelac, The lake of blood?

LEOFWIN. A lake that dips in William As well as Harold.

HAROLD. Like enough. I have seen The trenches dug, the palisades uprear'd And wattled thick with ash and willow-wands; Yea, wrought at them myself. Go round once more; See all be sound and whole. No Norman horse Can shatter England, standing shield by shield; Tell that again to all.

GURTH. I will, good brother.

HAROLD. Our guardsman hath but toil'd his hand and foot, I hand, foot, heart and head. Some wine! (One pours wine into a goblet which he