in the land since the Danes came,” ran a popular song, when Harald’s men seized AElfred, a brother of Eadmund Ironside, who returned to England from Normandy where he had found a refuge since his father’s flight to its shores.  Every tenth man among his followers was killed, the rest sold for slaves, and AElfred’s eyes torn out at Ely.  Harthacnut, more savage than his predecessor, dug up his brother’s body and flung it into a marsh; while a rising at Worcester against his hus-carls was punished by the burning of the town and the pillage of the shire.  The young king’s death was no less brutal than his life; in 1042 “he died as he stood at his drink in the house of Osgod Clapa at Lambeth.”  England wearied of rulers such as these:  but their crimes helped her to free herself from the impossible dream of Cnut.  The North, still more barbarous than herself, could give her no new element of progress or civilization.  It was the consciousness of this and a hatred of rulers such as Harald and Harthacnut which co-operated with the old feeling of reverence for the past in calling back the line of AElfred to the throne.

[Sidenote:  Eadward the Confessor]

It is in such transitional moments of a nation’s history that it needs the cool prudence, the sensitive selfishness, the quick perception of what is possible, which distinguished the adroit politician whom the death of Cnut left supreme in England.  Originally of obscure origin, Godwine’s ability had raised him high in the royal favour; he was allied to Cnut by marriage, entrusted by him with the earldom of Wessex, and at last made the Viceroy or justiciar of the King in the government of the realm.  In the wars of Scandinavia he had shown courage and skill at the head of a body of English troops, but his true field of action lay at home.  Shrewd, eloquent, an active administrator, Godwine united vigilance, industry, and caution with a singular dexterity in the management of men.  During the troubled years that followed the death of Cnut he did his best to continue his master’s policy in securing the internal union of England under a Danish sovereign and in preserving her connexion with the North.  But at the death of Harthacnut Cnut’s policy had become impossible, and abandoning the Danish cause Godwine drifted with the tide of popular feeling which called Eadward, the one living son of AEthelred, to the throne.  Eadward had lived from his youth in exile at the court of Normandy.  A halo of tenderness spread in after-time round this last king of the old English stock; legends told of his pious simplicity, his blitheness and gentleness of mood, the holiness that gained him his name of “Confessor” and enshrined him as a saint in his abbey-church at Westminster.  Gleemen sang in manlier tones of the long peace and glories of his reign, how warriors and wise counsellors stood round his throne, and Welsh and Scot and Briton obeyed him.  His was the one figure that stood out bright against the darkness when England lay trodden under