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tion, to the bloodthirsty barons of the invading army. Over the whole expanse of level country which might be seen from the slight elevation whereon was pitched the camp of William, on every side might be descried small parties of the Norman horse, driving in with their bloody lances, as if they were mere cattle, the unhappy captives; a few of whom they now began to spare, not from the slightest sentiment of mercy, but literally that their arms were weary with the task of slaying, although their hearts were yet insatiate of blood.

It was the morning after the exterminating fight at Hastings. The banner blessed of the Roman pontiff streamed on the tainted air, from the same hillock whence the dragon standard of the Saxons had shone unconquered to the sun of yester-even! Hard by was pitched the proud pavilion of the conqueror, who, It must be now taken into consideration after the tremendous strife and perilous by those who listen with dismay and wonder labours of the preceding day, reposed him- to the accounts of pitiless barbarity-of self in fearless and untroubled confidence ruthless, indiscriminating slaughter on upon the field of his renown; secure in the part of men whom they have hitherto the possession of the land, which he was been taught to look upon as brave indeed destined to transmit to his posterity for as lions in the field, but not partaking of many a hundred years, by the red title of the lion's nature after the field was wonthe sword. not only that the seeds of enmity had long To the defeated Saxons, morning, how-been sown between those rival people, but ever, brought but a renewal of those miseries which, having yesterday commenced with the first victory of their Norman lords, were never to conclude, or even to relax, until the complete amalgamation of the rival races should leave no Normans to torment, no Saxons to endure; all being merged at last into one general name of English, and by their union giving origin to the most powerful, and brave, and intellectual people, the world has ever looked upon since the extinction of Rome's freedom.

that the deadly crop of hatred had grown up, watered abundantly by the tears and blood of either; and, lastly, that the fierce fanaticism of religious persecution was added to the natural rancour of a war waged for the ends of conquest or extermination. The Saxon nation, from the king downward to the meanest serf who fought beneath his banner, or buckled on the arms of liberty, were all involved under the common ban of the pope's interdict. They were accursed of God, and handed over by his holy church to the kind mercies of the secular arm; and therefore, though but yesterday they were a powerful and united nation, to-day they were but a vile horde of scattered outlaws, whom any man might slay wherever he should find them, whether in arms or otherwiseamenable for blood neither to any mortal jurisdiction, nor even to the ultimate tribunal to which all must submit hereafter, unless deprived of their appeal like these

At the time of which we are now speaking, nothing was thought of by the victors save how to rivet most securely on the necks of the unhappy natives their yoke of iron; nothing by the poor, subjugated Saxons, but how to escape for the moment the unrelenting massacre which was urged far and wide by the remorseless conquerors throughout the devastated country. With the defeat of Harold's host, all national hope of freedom was at once lost to Eng-poor fugitives, by excommunication from land. Though, to a man, the English population were brave and loyal, and devoted to their country's rights, the want of leaders-all having perished side by side on that disastrous field-of combination, without which myriads are but dust in the scale against the force of one united handful-rendered them quite unworthy of any serious fears, and even of considera

the pale of Christianity. For thirty miles around the Norman camp, pillars of smoke by day, continually streaming upward to the polluted heaven, and the red glare of nightly conflagration, told fatally the doom of many a happy home! Neither the castle nor the cottage might preserve their male inhabitants from the sword's edge, their females from more barbarous

persecution. Neither the sacred hearth of hospitality nor the more sacred altars of God's churches might protect the miserable fugitives; neither the mail-shirt of the man-at-arms nor the monk's frock of serge availed against the thrust of the fierce Norman spear. All was dismay and havoc, such as the land wherein those horrors were enacted has never witnessed since, through many a following age.

High noon approached, and in the conqueror's tent a gorgeous feast was spread. The red wine flowed profusely, and song and minstrelsy arose with their heartsoothing tones, to which the feeble groans of dying wretches bore a dread burden from the plain whereon they still lay struggling in their great agonies, too sorely maimed to live, too strong as yet to die. But, ever and anon, their wail waxed feebler and less frequent; for many a plunderer was on foot, licensed to ply his odious calling in the full light of dayreaping his first, if not his richest booty, from the dead bodies of their slaughtered foemen. Il fared the wretches who lay there, untended by the hand of love or mercy, "scorched by the death-thirst, and writhing in vain;" but worse fared they who showed a sign of life to the relentless robbers of the dead, for then the dagger-falsely called that of mercywas the dispenser of immediate immortality. The conqueror sat at his triumphant board, and barons drank his health: "First English monarch, of the pure blood of Normandy!"-" King by the right of the sword's edge!" -"Great, glorious, and sublime!" Yet was not his heart softened, nor was his bitter hate toward the unhappy prince who had so often ridden by his side in war, and feasted at the same board with him in peace, relinquished or abated. Even while the feast was at the highest, while every heart was jocund and sublime, a trembling messenger approached, craving on bended knee permission to address the conqueror and king-for so he was already schooled by brief but hard experience to style the devastator of his country.

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Speak out, Dog Saxon!" cried the ferocious prince; "but since thou must speak, see that thy speech be brief, an' thou wouldst keep thy tongue uncropped

thereafter!"

"Great duke and mighty," replied the trembling envoy, "I bear you greeting from Elgitha, erewhile the noble wife of Godwin, the queenly mother of our late monarch-now, as she bade me style her, the humblest of your suppliants and slaves. Of your great nobleness and mercy, mighty king, she sues you, that you will grant her the poor leave to search amid the heaps of those our Saxon dead, that her three sons may at least lie in consecrated earth-so may God send you peace and glory here, and everlasting happiness hereafter!"

"Hear to the Saxon slave!" William exclaimed, turning as if in wonder toward his nobles; "hear to the Saxon slave, that dares to speak of consecrated earth, and of interment for the unworthy body of that most perjured, excommunicated liar! Hence! tell the mother of the dead man, whom you have dared to style your king, that for her interdicted and despised dead the sands of the seashore are but too good a sepulchre!"

"She bade me proffer humbly to your acceptance the weight of Harold's body in pure gold," faintly gasped forth the terrified and cringing messenger, would grant her that permission."

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so you

"Proffer us gold! what gold, or whose? Know, villain, all the gold throughout this conquered realm is ours. Hence, dog and outcast, hence! nor presume e'er again to come, insulting us by proffering,

as

a boon to our acceptance, that which we own already, by the most indefeasible and ancient right of conquest!-Said I not well, knights, vavasours, and nobles?"

"Well! well and nobly!" answered they one and all. "The land is ours, and all that therein is: their dwellings, their demesnes, their wealth, whether of gold, or silver, or of cattle-yea, they themselves are ours! themselves, their sons, their daughters, and their wives-our portion and inheritance, to be our slaves for ever!"

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Begone! you have our answer," claimed the duke, spurning him with his foot; "and hark ye, arbalast-men and archers, if any Saxon more approach us on like errand, see if his coat of skin be proof against the shaft!"

And once again the feast went on; and louder rang the revelry, and faster flew

the wine-cup round the tumultuous board. All day the banquet lasted, even till the dews of heaven fell on that fatal field, watered sufficiently already by the rich gore of many a noble heart. All day the banquet lasted, and far was it prolonged into the watches of the night; when, rising with the wine-cup in his hand"Nobles and barons," cried the duke, "friends, comrades, conquerors, bear witness to my vow! Here, on these heights of Hastings, and more especially upon yon mound and hillock, where God gave to us our high victory, and where our last foe fell-there will I raise an abbey to HIS eternal praise and glory. Richly endowed it shall be, from the first fruits of this our land. BATTLE, it shall be called, to send the memory of this, the great and singular achievement of our race, to far posterity; and, by the splendour of kings, wine shall be more plentiful | among the monks of Battle, than water in the noblest and richest cloister else, search the world over! This do I swear: so may God aid, who hath thus far assisted us in the great and trying struggle which has secured to us this goodly inheritance!

sion to search amid those festering heaps, dabbling their hands in the corrupt and pestilential gore which filled each nook and hollow of the dinted soil, so they might bear away, and water with their tears, and yield to consecrated ground, the relies of those brave ones, once loved so fondly, and now so bitterly lamented. It was towards the afternoon of that same day, when a long train was seen approaching, with crucifix, and cross, and censerthe monks of Waltham abbey, coming to offer homage for themselves, and for their tenantry and vassals, to him whom they acknowledged as their king; expressing their submission to the high will of the Norman monarch-justified, as they said, and proved by the assertion of God's judgment upon the hill of Hastings. Highly delighted by this absolute submission, the first he had received from any English tongue, the conqueror received the monks with courtesy and favour, granting them high immunities, and promising them free protection, and the unquestionable tenure of their broad demesnes for ever. Nay, after he had answered their address, he detained two of their numbermen of intelligence, as, with his wonted quickness of perception he instantly discovered from whom to derive information as to the nature of his newly acquired country, and newly- conquered subjects. Osgad and Ailric, the deputed messengers from the respected principal of their community, had yet a further and higher object than to tender their submission to the conqueror. Their orders were, at all and every risk, to gain permission to consign the corpse of their late king and founder, to the earth previously denied to him. And soon, emboldened by the courtesy and kindness of the muchdreaded Norman, they took courage to approach the subject, knowing it interdicted, even on pain of death; and to their wonder and delight, it was unhesitatingly granted.

The second day dawned on the place of horror, and not a Saxon had presumed, since the intolerant message of the duke, to come to look upon his dead. But now the ground was needed whereon to lay the first stone of the abbey William had vowed to God. The ground was needed; and, moreover, the foul steam from the human shambles was pestilential on the winds of heaven. And now, by trumpetsound, and proclamation through the land, the Saxons were called forth, on pain of death, to come and seek their dead, lest the health of the conquerors should suffer from the pollution they themselves had wrought. Scarce had the blast sounded, and the glad tidings been announced once only, ere from their miserable shelters, where they had herded with the wild beasts of the forest-from wood, morass, Throughout the whole of the third day and cavern, happy if there they might succeeding that unparalleled defeat and escape the Norman spear-forth crept the slaughter, those old men might be seen relies of that persecuted race. Old men toiling among the naked carcasses, disand matrons, with hoary heads, and steps figured, maimed, and festering in the sun, that tottered no less from the effect of toiling to find the object of their devoted terror than of age—maidens, and youths, veneration. But vain were all their la and infants-too happy to obtain permis-bours-vain was their search, even when

MAXIMS AND RULES OF CELEBRATED MEN.

BRATED MEN.

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they called in the aid of his most intimate MAXIMS AND RULES OF CELEattendants, ay, of the mother that had borne him! The corpses of his brethren, Leofwyn and Gurth, were soon discovered; but not one eye, even of those who had most dearly loved him, could now distinguish the maimed features of the king.

At last, when hope itself was now almost extinct, came one named Edith-Edith, the Swan-necked! She had been greatly loved-years ere he had been, or dreamed of being king by the brave son of Godwin. She had regarded him in her youth with that one, single-minded, constant, never-ending love, which but few, even of her devoted sex, can feel, and they but once, and for one cherished object. Deserted and dishonoured when he she loved was elevated to the throne, she had not forgotten past days of love; but, quitting her now joyless home, had shared her heart between her memories and her God, in the sequestered cloisters of the nunnery of Croyland. More days elapsed ere she could reach the fatal spot, and the increased corruption denied the smallest hope of his discovery: yet, from the moment when the mission was named to her, she expressed her full and confident conviction that she could recognise that loved one so long as but one hair remained on that head she had once so cherished! It was night when she arrived on the fatal field; and, by the light of torches, once more they set out on their awful duty. "Show me the spot," she said, “where the last warrior fell;" and she was led to the place where had been found the corpses of his gallant brethren: and, with an instinct that nothing could deceive, she went straight to the corpse of Harold! It had been turned already to and fro many times by those who sought it; his mother had looked on it, and pronounced it not her son's: but that devoted heart knew it at once and broke! Whom rank, and wealth, and honours had divided, defeat and death made one! and the same grave contained the cold remains of Edith the Swan-necked and the last scion of the Saxon kings of England. Such is the faith of woman. It strengthens in the poorest hut, and is the brightest jewel that can adorn the monarch's crown. In all phases of life, it is the most hallowing earthly tie to which we can cling.

SWEDENBORG.

1. Often to read and meditate on the word of God.

2. To submit everything to the will of Divine Providence.

3. To observe in everything a propriety of behaviour, and always to keep the conscience clear.

4. To discharge with fidelity the functions of his employment and duties of his office, and to render himself in all things useful to society.

CARUS.

1. Hear as little as possible whatever is to the prejudice of others.

2. Believe nothing of the kind till you are absolutely forced to it.

3. Never to drink into the spirit of any one who circulates an evil report.

4. Always moderate, as far as possible, the unkindness which is expressed towards

others.

5. Always to believe that if the other side were heard, a very different account would be given of the matter.

BISHOP MIDDLETON.

1. Maintain dignity without the appearance of pride.

2. Persevere against discouragement. 3. Keep your temper.

4. Be punctual and methodical in business, and never procrastinate.

5. Preserve self-possession, and do not be talked out of conviction.

6. Never be in a hurry.

7. Rise early, and be an economist of time.

8. Practise strict temperance.

9. Manner is something with everybody, and everything with some.

10. Be guarded in discourse, attentive, and slow to speak.

11. Never acquiesce in immoral or pernicious opinions.

12. Be not forward to assign reasons to those who have no right to ask.

13. Think nothing in conduct unimportant and indifferent.

14. In all your transactions remember the final account.

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THE WORK-TABLE FRIEND.

MOURNING PURSE.

Materials.-1 skeins black crochet silk, No. 2 (French), 9 skeins of silver thread. Tassels as represented in the engraving, of black and silver, and slides to match. Boulton and Son's crochet hook, No. 21.

Of course this purse can be made in any other combinations of colours, and being extremely simple, is very suitable for a learner.

Make a chain of five, and close it into a round with the silk.

1st Round.-Sc, 2 in 1 all round.

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5th Round. +3 silver on 2, 2 black on 2, +10 times.

6th Round.+4 silver on 3, 2 black on 2, +10 times.

7th Round.-+5 silver on 4, 3 black on 2, +10 times.

8th Round.+1 silver on the same stitch as last black, 1 more silver, +3 black on centre 3 of 5 silver, 2 silver, 2 black on centre 1 of 3, 2 silver, +9 times. 3 black, 2 silver, 2 black.

9th Round.- +1 silver on last stitch, 1 more silver, 2 black, 1 silver, (on centre of 3 black) 2 black, 2 silver, 1 black, 2 silver, +9 times.

10th Round.+1 black, 3 silver, 1 black, 2 silver, 1 black, +9 times. The 10th time finish with 2 black.

11th Round.-+2 silver, 2 black, 1 silver, 2 black, 2 silver, 2 black on 1, +9 times. The 10th 2 black on 2.

12th Round.- +1 black, 2 silver, 3 black, 2 silver, 3 black,+ 10 times. 13th Round.+2 black, 5 silver, 4 black,+10 times.

14th Round.-+3 black, 3 silver, 5 black,+10 times.

15th Round.-+4 black, 1 silver, 6 black,+10 times.

16th Round.-All silk, without increase. 17th and 18th Round.-All silk, +5 De in 1, miss 4 + 22 times. In the 18th and all following rounds, the 5 Dc are worked in the centre of the 5 Dc of the previous one.

MOURNING PURSE, BY MRS. PULLAN.

19th Round. The same, in silver, with 1 chain between every 5 Dc.

Repeat these three rounds, 2 in silk, and 1 in silver, 5 times.

For the opening, with silk only, +1 Dc, 1 Ch, miss 1, + work backwards and forwards 20 rows.

Form again into a round, and work the

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