England, when he betrothed your daughter in Normandy; but he maintains that a compulsory oath is not binding ; for, if a vow or an oath, which, without consulting her parents, a damsel knowingly took respecting her person, in her father's house, could be recalled as of no effect, much more ought an oath, which he had made under duresse, being the king's liegeman, and without informing him, to be of none effect. He adds, moreover, that it would have been the height of presumption in him, without consulting the great council of the nation, to give the inheritance of the kingdom to a stranger ; and that it is unjust in you to ask him to give up a kingdom, whose government had been conferred on him by the general assent of the nobles." Arrival of William duke of Normandy in England.* On hearing this message, William duke of Normandy was exceedingly indignant, and, that he might not prejudice the * This same Harold while yet young, aspiring to the kingdom of England and voluntarily travelling abroad, whilst on a voyage, was driven from his track by a storm, and, when he thought that he had reached Flanders, he was driven to the province of [Ponthieu]; the ruler of which made him prisoner and presented him to William duke of Normandy. But Harold asserted that he had done all this willingly, that he might come to Normandy to enter into a treaty with the Norman duke, and take his daughter to wife ; and this he swore on the relics of many of the saints that ho would fulfil faithfully at a fixed period. The more secret this arrival was, the more honourably was he received ; for the two chiefs had before been enemies. He moreover swore that, after the death of king Edward, who had already grown old and was without children, he would faithfully keep the kingdom of England for the duke, who had a right to the kingdom. Having then spent some days in great rejoicings, Harold returned to England enriched with large presents ; but after he was settled in safety he frequently boasted that he had escaped the snares of his enemy, though he did not mind incurring the charge of perjury. At length the time approached, when all his promises ought to have been fulfilled, and it now fully expired without his doing anything. The duke therefore sent messengers to inquire the reason of this ; but Harold, a false and proud man, insolently denied all his agreements, and taunting the messengers sent them back with their horses mutilated. The duke, justly incensed at this, roused the king of the French, and all his neighbours, relations, and friends, to take vengeance with him for such a great insult ; and by the Lord's assistance in his vengeance, crushed Harold, and, as the following history mentions, gained for himself the kingdom of England. In the year of grace 1066, the peaceful king Edward, son of king Ethelred, the boast of Englishmen, on the fifth day of the week, at the feast of the Lord's Epiphany, exchanged a temporal for an eternal kingdom, after having reigned twenty-four years. This most blessed king was buried on