The strong heart of William, however, failed him not, and by his single prowess and presence of mind he recalled the fleeing troops.  Order was soon restored, and the Norman host pressed on to a second and more terrible attack.  The duke himself, his relics round his neck, sought out Harold.  A few moments more, and the two might have come face to face, but Gyrth, the noble brother of the English king, hurled a spear at William.  The missile narrowly missed the duke, but slew the Spanish steed, the first of three that died under him that day.  But William could not fight on foot as well as on horseback.  He rose to his feet, pressed straight to seek the man who had so nearly slain him, and the earl fell, crushed beneath the blow of William’s mace.  Nor did he fall alone, for his brother, Earl Leofwine, was smitten to the earth by an unknown assailant.

The second attack, however, failed, for the English lines were as unyielding as ever.  Direct attack was unavailing.  In the Norman character fox and lion were equally blended, as William now showed.  He ventured on the daring stratagem of ordering a pretended flight, and the unwary English rushed down the slope, pursuing the fugitive with shouts of delight.  The error was fatal to England.  The tide was turned; the duke’s object was now gained; and the main end of Harold’s skilful tactics was frustrated.  The English were no longer entrenched, and the battle fell into a series of single combats.  As twilight was coming on an arrow, falling like a bolt from heaven, pierced Harold’s right eye, and he sank in agony at the foot of the standard.  Round that standard the fight still raged, till the highest nobility, the most valiant soldiery of England were slaughtered to a man.

Had Harold lived, had another like him been ready to take his place, we may well doubt whether, even after Senlac, England would have been conquered at all.  As it was, from this moment her complete conquest was only a matter of time.  From that day forward the Normans began to work the will of God upon the folk of England, till there were left in England no chiefs of the land of English blood, till all were brought down to bondage and sorrow, till it was a shame to be called an Englishman, and the men of England were no more a people.

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JAMES ANTHONY FROUDE

History of England

James Anthony Froude was born at Darlington, England, April 23, 1818, and died on Oct. 20, 1894.  He was educated at Westminster, and Oriel College, Oxford.  Taking Holy Orders, he was, for a time, deeply influenced by Newman and the Tractarian movement, but soon underwent the radical revolution of thought revealed by his first treatise, the “Nemesis of Faith,” which appeared in 1849, and created a sensation.  Its tendency to skepticism cost him his fellowship, but its profound pathos, its accent of tenderness,