Stigand. Truth! no; a lie; a trick, a Norman trick! They turn on the pursuer, horse against foot, They murder all that follow. They have broken the commandment of the king! Edith. His oath was broken-O holy Ye that are now of heaven, and see beyond Your Norman shrines, pardon it, pardon it, That he forsware himself for all he loved, Me, me and all! Look out upon the battle! Stigand. They press again upon the barricades. My sight is eagle, but the strife so thick Stigand. Ha! Gurth hath leapt upon | They are so much holier than their har him lot's son and yet He must be here. Enter two Canons, OSGOD and ATHELRIC, Athelric. Osgod. And here is Leofwin. it were They have so maim'd and martyr'd all his face There is no man can swear to him. Edith. Look you, we never mean to part again. I yield it freely, being the true wife Enter COUNT WILLIAM and WILLIAM MALET. William. Who be these women And what body is this? Malet. Not true, my girl, here is the Queen! [Pointing out ALDWYTH. William (to ALDWYTH). Wast thou his Queen? Aldwyth. I was the Queen of Wales. Knowest thou this other? be! Malet. When I visited England, Bury him and his paramour together. Some held she was his wife in secret He that was false in oath to me, it seems Was false to his own wife. We will A Christian burial: yet he was a warnot give him rior, And wise, yea truthful, till that blighted vow Which God avenged to-day. shore At Hastings, there to guard the land for which He did forswear himself ay, a warrior with me And but that Holy Peter fought for us, | My Normans may but move as true And that the false Northumbrian held aloof, To the door of death. Of one self-stock at first, Make them again one people-Norman, English; And English, Norman ;--we should have a hand To grasp the world with, and a foot to stamp it... |