Page:St. Nicholas, vol. 40.1 (1912-1913).djvu/677

Rh him, were killed. But the book carries us on, in a last chapter, to a glimpse of England in the day that was crowned king, an English king of the English nation, and the dark day of conquest was over. Much has happened before this, however. Hereward was a son of

, the fairest and most pious woman of her time, famous for her great act of self-sacrifice, when she rode through the town clad only in her shining hair, and of her husband,, the greatest man in the court of Edward the Confessor save , father of Harold, and Leofric’s enemy.

Hereward was rather a wild youth; unluckily, his mother misunderstood him, thinking him a wilful sinner, and she so influenced his father against him that the lad was banished and flung out into the world to shift for himself. Which shows that Lady Godiva had her faults, for all her saintliness. But Hereward is a stout youngster, and few can match him in feats of arms or bodily skill; he is also a leader born, and born for greatness.

But he is not so lovable as the noble Harold, great though he be, and gallant. He loves too, and marries his beloved, but he breaks her heart, for he is not worthy of her.

In reading both these romances, you will see that the Saxon and the Dane both adored freedom with a real passion. The trouble with Hereward was that he loved himself best of all, however, and he brings harm and sorrow to England, and more to himself, and dies betrayed; but it is a brave death, a hero’s death, one against many. Torfrida, his wife, forgives him then for the wrongs he did her and others. It was an age of sudden death and constant peril, and courage was the greatest possession a man might have; Hereward died a brave man, and, therefore, was counted a good one at the last.

But England under the Norman was in a sad plight.

sang, a bard of those days. Things grew worse and worse. For more than sixty years, the Norman Williams, and, and , oppressed the poor. “Then was corn dear, and flesh and cheese and butter, for there was none in the land. Wretched