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man on foot. In this arrangement the king seems to have adopted, as far as circumstances would permit, the plan which had lately proved so fatal to the Norwegians, and which now, from the same causes, was productive of a similar result. Probably he feared the shock of the numerous cavalry of the Normans. Both men and horses were completely cased in armor, which gave to their charge an irresistible weight, and rendered them almost invulnerable by ordinary weapons. For the purpose of opposing them with more chance of success, Harold had brought with him engines to discharge stones into their ranks, and had recommended to his soldiers to confine themselves in close fight to the use of the battle-axe, a heavy and murderous weapon.

On the opposite hill, William was employed in marshalling his host. In the front he placed the archers and bowmen the second line was composed of heavy infantry, clothed in coats of mail; and behind these the Duke arranged in five divisions, the hope and the pride of the Norman force, the knights and men at arms. About nine in the morning the army began to move, crossed the interval between the two hills, and slowly ascended the eminence on which the English were posted. The papal banner, as an omen of victory, was carried in the front by Toustain the fair, a dangerous honor which two of the Norman barons had successively declined. At the moment when the armies were ready to engage, the Normans raised the national shout of "God is our help," which was as loudly answered by the adverse cry of "Christ's rood, the holy rood." The archers, after the discharge of their arrows, retired to the infantry, whose weak and extended line was unable to make any impression on their more numerous opponents. William ordered the cavalry to charge. The shock was dreadful; but the English in every point opposed a solid and impenetrable Neither buckler nor corslet would withstand the stroke of the battle-axe, wielded by a powerful arm and with unerring aim; and the confidence of the Normans

mass.

melted away at the view of their own loss and the bold countenance of their enemies. After a short pause the horse and foot of the left wing betook themselves to flight their opponents eagerly pursued: and a report was spread that William himself had fallen. The whole army began to waver; when the Duke with his helmet in his hand, rode along the line exclaiming: "I am still alive, and, with the help of God, I still shall conquer.” The presence and confidence of their commander revived the hopes of the Normans: and the speedy destruction of the English who had pursued the fugitives, was fondly magnified into an assurance of victory. These brave but incautious men had, on their return, been intercepted by a numerous body of cavalry and on foot and in confusion they quickly disappeared beneath the swords, or rather the horses, of the enemy. Not a man survived the carnage. William led his troops again to the attack but the English column, dense and immovable as a rock amidst the waves, resisted every assault. Disappointed and perplexed, the Norman had recourse to a stratagem, suggested by his success in the earlier part of the day. He ordered a division of horse to flee; they were pursued: and the temerity of the pursuers was punished with instant destruction. The same feint was tried with equal success in another part of the field. These losses might diminish the numbers of the English: but the main body obstinately maintained its position, and bade defiance to every effort of the Normans.

During the engagement William had given the most signal proofs of personal bravery. Three horses had been killed under him; and he had been compelled to grapple on foot with his adversaries. Harold had also animated his followers, both by word and example, and had displayed a courage worthy of the crown, for which he was fighting. His brothers Gurth and Leofwin had perished already but as long as he survived, no man entertained the apprehension of defeat or admitted the idea of flight. A little before sunset an arrow, shot at

random, entered his eye. He instantly fell; and the knowledge of his fall relaxed the efforts of the English. Twenty Normans undertook to seize the royal banner; and effected their purpose, but with the loss of half their number. One of them, who maimed with his sword the dead body of the king, was afterwards disgraced by William for his brutality. At dusk, the English broke up, and dispersed through the wood.

As William, attracted by the cries of the combatants, was hastening to the place, he met Eustace of Boulogne and fifty knights fleeing with all their speed. He called on them to stop but the earl, while he was in the act of whispering into the ear of the Duke, received a stroke on the back, which forced the blood out of his mouth and nostrils. He was carried in a state of insensibility to his tent: William's intrepidity hurried him forward to the scene of danger. His presence encouraged his men : succors arrived and the English after an obstinate resistance, were repulsed. On the side of the victors. almost sixty thousand men had been engaged, and more than one-fourth were left on the field. The number of the vanquished, and the amount of their loss, are unknown. By the vanity of the Norman historians the English army has been exaggerated beyond the limits of credibility; by that of the native writers it has been reduced to a handful of resolute warriors: but both agree, that with Harold and his brothers perished all the nobility of the south of England; a loss which could not be repaired.

The king's mother begged as a boon the dead body of her son; and offered as a ransom its weight in gold: but the resentment of William had rendered him callous to pity, and insensible to all interested considerations. He ordered the corpse of the fallen monarch to be buried on the beach; adding, with a sneer, "he guarded the coast while he was alive; let him continue to guard it after death." By stealth, however, or by purchase, the royal remains were removed from this unhallowed site,

and deposited in the church of Waltham, which Harold had founded before he ascended the throne.

LXVI.

DESCRIPTION OF CADIZ DURING THE BATTLE OF TRA

FALGAR.-Jacobs.

Before the battle of Trafalgar, when the orders arrived for the fleet to sail, every man, at all accustomed to the water, was impressed to man the navy; the carnage of that day consequently fell principally on the population of Cadiz; and numerous widows and orphans have to lament the loss of their husbands and fathers in that memorable action.

I have frequently heard people relating, with indescribable emotions, the fears, the hopes, the agitations, and the mournings, which occupied those few, but interesting days, when the united fleets of France and Spain sailed from Cadiz, amidst the prayers and benedictions of the people, with the vain expectation of vanquishing the foe who had so long held them imprisoned within their own fortifications. The day they sailed, all was expectation and anxiety. The succeeding day increased the suspense, and wound up the feelings of the people almost to a state of phrenzy. The third day brought intelligence that the hostile fleets were approaching each other, with all the preparations of determined hostility. The ships were not visible from the ramparts, but the crowds of citizens assembled there had their ears assailed by the roaring of the distant cannon; the anxiety of the females bordered on insanity; but more of despair than of hope was visible in every countenance. At this dreadful moment, a sound, louder than any that had preceded it, and attended with a column of dark smoke, announced that a ship had exploded. The madness of the people was turned te rage against England; and exclamations burst forth, denouncing instant death to every man who spoke the language of their enemies.

Two Americans, who had mixed with the people, fled, and hid themselves, to avoid this ebullition of popular fury; which, however, subsided into the calmness of despair, when the thunder of the cannon ceased. They had no hope of conquest, no cheering expectations of greeting their victorious countrymen, nor of sharing triumphal laurels with those who had been engaged in the conflict; each only hoped that the objects of his own affection were safe; and in that hope found some resource against the anticipated disgrace of the country.

The storm that succeeded the battle tended only to keep alive, through the night, the horrors of the day, and to prepare them for the melancholy spectacle of the ensuing morning, when the wrecks of their floating bulwarks were seen on shore, and some, that had escaped the battle and the storm, entering the bay to shelter themselves from the pursuit of their victorious enemy. The feelings of strong sensibility, which had so agitated the minds of the people during the conflict, were now directed to the tender offices of humanity towards their wounded countrymen; the softer sex attended on the wharfs to assist them in landing, to convey them to the convents and the hospitals; while the priests were administering the last offices of religion to those whose departing spirits took their flight before they could reach the asylum appointed for their reception. When the first emotions had subsided, the people of Cadiz strongly manifested their contempt of the French, whom they accused of having deserted them in the hour of battle; and the attention. of Lord Collingwood to the wounded Spanish prisoners, induced them to contrast the conduct of their generous enemies with that of their treacherous allies.

LXVII.

CHARACTER OF CROMWELL.

IN the general spirit and character of his administration, we think Cromwell far superior to Napoleon. 'In

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