That thou wouldst have his promise for | Forgotten and forgiven by them and the crown? thee. Edward. Harold, I will not yield thee leave to go. Harold. Why then to Flanders. I will hawk and hunt the seas! Edward. What, with this flaming Harold. Well, when it passes then. Go not to Normandy mandy. Harold. And wherefore not, my king, to Normandy? Is not my brother Wulfnoth hostage there For my dead father's loyalty to thee? I pray thee, let me hence and bring him home. Edward. Not thee, my son : some other messenger. Harold. And why not me, my lord, to Normandy? is not the Norman Count thy friend and mine ? Edward. Be there not fair woods and fields In England? Wilful, wilful. Go-the Saints Pilot and prosper all thy wandering out And homeward. Tostig, I am faint again. Son Harold, I will in and pray for thee. [Exit, leaning on TOSTIG, and followed by STIGAND, MORCAR, and COURT IERS. Harold. What lies upon the mind of our good king That he should harp this way on Normandy? Queen. Brother, the king is wiser than he seems; And Tostig knows it; Tostig loves the king. Harold. And love should know; and be the king so wise, Then Tostig too were wiser than he seems. I love the man but not his fantasies. Re-enter TOSTIG. Pray God the people choose thee for their king! But all the powers of the house of Godwin Are not enframed in thee. Harold. Thank the Saints, no! But thou hast drain'd them shallow by thy tolls, And thou art ever here about the King: Thine absence well may seem a want of care. Cling to their love; for, now the sons of Godwin Sit topmost in the field of England, envy, Tostig. Tostig. And wouldst thou that it went aught else than well? Harold. I would it went as well as with mine earldom, Leofwin's and Gurth's. Tostig. Ye govern milder men. Gurth. We have made them milder by just government. Tostig. Ay, ever give yourselves your own good word. Leofwin. An honest gift, by all the Saints, if giver And taker be but honest! but they bribe Each other, and so often, an honest world Will not believe them. Harold. I may tell thee, Tostig, I heard from thy Northumberland today. Tostig. From spies of thine to spy my nakedness In my poor North! And wisest, should not frown as Power, but smile As kindness, watching all, till the true must Shall make her strike as Power: but when to strikeIf they O Tostig, O dear brother And break both neck and axle. Good again! Good counsel tho' scarce needed. Pour not water In the full vessel running out at top Leofwin. Nor thou be a wild thing Out of the waste, to turn and bite the hand Would help thee from the trap. However wisely charm'd. Tostig. For Godwin's house! Leofwin, thou hast a tongue! Tostig, thou look st as thou wouldst spring upon him St. Olaf, not while I am by! Come, come, Join hands, let brethren dwell in unity; Let kith and kin stand close as our shield-wall, Who breaks us then? I say, thou hast a tongue, And Tostig is not stout enough to bear it. Vex him not, Leofwin. Tostig. No, I am not vext, Altho' ye seek to vex me, one and all. I have to make report of my good earldom To the good king who gave it- not to you Harold. There is a movement there, Not any of you. A blind one - nothing yet. all. Tostig. Aldwyth. Gamel, son of Orm, What thinkest thou this means? Gamel. [Pointing to the comet. War, my dear lady, That shalt thou never be War, waste, plague, famine, all malig If I can thwart thee. Harold. Brother, brother! Tostig. Away! [Exit TOSTIG. Queen. Spite of this grisly star ye three must gall Poor Tostig. Leofwin. Tostig, sister, galls himself. He cannot smell a rose but pricks his Side not with Tostig in any violence, Lest thou be sideways guilty of the violence. Queen. Come, fall not foul on me. leave thee, brother. Harold. Nay, my good sister I nities. Aldwyth. It means the fall of Tostig from his earldom. Gamel. That were too small a matter for a comet! Aldwyth. It means the lifting of the Gamel. Too small! a comet would man; This Tostig is, or like to be, a tyrant; And not be giddy. Aldwyth. No more now: to-morrow. SCENE II. IN THE GARDEN. THE I He ment; can but stay a moment: he is go I fain would hear him coming!... near ing. me... near, Somewhere — To draw him nearer with a charm Like thine to thine. (Singing.) Love is come with a song and a smile, Why cannot he stay? They call him away: Enter HAROLD. Harold. The nightingales at Havering-in-the-bower Sang out their loves so loud, that Edward's prayers [Exeunt QUEEN, HAROLD, GURTH, and Were deafen'd, and he pray'd them LEOFWIN, dumb, and thus morn, I dumb thee too, my wingless nightin- | For so methought it was our marriagegale! [Kissing her. Edith. Thou art my music! Would their wings were mine To follow thee to Flanders! Must thou go? Harold. Not must, but will. It is but for one moon. Edith. Leaving so many foes in Edward's hall To league against thy weal. The Lady Aldwyth Was here to-day, and when she touch'd on thee, She stammer'd in her hate; I am sure she hates thee, Pans for thy blood. Harold. Well, I have given her cause I fear no woman. Edith. Hate not one who felt Some pity for thy hater! I am sure Her morning wanted sunlight, she so praised The convent and lone life within the pale Beyond the passion. Nay-she held with Edward, At least methought she held with holy Edward, That marriage was half sin. Harold. A lesson worth Finger and thumb-thus (snaps his fingers). And my answer to it See here- an interwovon H and E! Take thou this ring; I will demand his ward From Edward when I come again. would she? Ay, And while we stood together, a dead man Rose from behind the altar, tore away My marriage ring, and rent my bridal veil; And then I turn'd, and saw the church all fill'd With dead men upright from their graves, and all Edith. Did not Heaven speak to men in dreams of old? Harold. Ay-well- - of old. I tell thee what, my child; Thou hast misread this merry dream of thine, Taken the rifted pillars of the wood For smooth stone columns of the sanctuary, The shadows of a hundred fat dead deer For dead men's ghosts. True, that the battle-axe Was out of place; it should have been the bow. Come, thou shalt dream no more such dreams; I swear it, By mine own eyes-and these two sapphires these Twin rubies, that are amulets against all To tumble at thy feet. Edith. That would but shame me, Rather than make me vain. The sea may roll Sand, shingle, shore-weed, not the living rock Which guards the land. Harold. Except it be a soft one, And undereaten to the fall. Mine am ulet.... This last. . . upon thine eyelids, to shut in A happier dream. Sleep, sleep, and thou shalt see My greyhounds fleeting like a beam of light, More, tenfold, than this fearful child can do ; Griffyth I hated: why not hate the foe Of England? Griffyth when I saw him flee, Chased deer-like up his mountains, all That should have only pulsed for -OS Then fling mine own fair person in the A sacrifice to Harold, a peace-offering, For his pursuer. I love him or think I The houses on mine head — then a fair him. She must be cloister'd somehow, lest Should yield his ward to Harold's will. She hath but blood enough to live, not When Harold goes and Tostig, shall I play The craftier Tostig with him? fawn upon him? Chime in with all? "O thou more saint than king!" And that were true enough. “O blessed relics!" "O Holy Peter!" If he found me thus, Breathing an easy gladness. . . not like For which I strangely love him. Should Love Aldwyth, if she stay the feuds that part The sons of Godwin from the sons of Alfgar By such a marrying? Courage, noble Let all thy people bless thee! life And bless the Queen of England. Morcar (coming from the thicket). Art By this, that Harold loves but Edith? Out of the bush by night? Aldwyth. Thou shalt flash it secretly Among the good Northumbrian folk, that I That Harold loves me yea, and presently That I and Harold are betroth'd -- and Perchance that Harold wrongs me; tho' And thunder for thee. I will both flash I said "secretly"; It is the flash that murders, the poor thunder |