It is a pity that there is no lady of the
house of Godwin, whom we could honor by offering her to one of your
nephews, in return for their nobleness in giving Aldytha to my Harold. But
this foolish girl here refuses to wed--"
"And is past forty," thought Hereward to himself.
"However, some plan to join the families more closely together might be
thought of. One of the young earls might marry Judith here. [Footnote:
Tosti's widow, daughter of Baldwin of Flanders] Waltheof would have
Northumbria, in right of his father, and ought to be well content,--for
although she is somewhat older than he, she is peerlessly beautiful,--to
marry your niece Aldytha." [Footnote: Harold's widow.]
"And Gospatrick?"
"Gospatrick," she said, with a half-sneer, "will be as sure, as he is
able, to get something worth having for himself out of any medley. Let him
have Scotch Northumbria, if he claim it. He is a Dane, and our work will
be to make a Danish England once and forever."
"But what of Sweyn's gallant holders and housecarles, who are to help to
do this mighty deed?"
"Senlac left gaps enough among the noblemen of the South, which they can
fill up, in the place of the French scum who now riot over Wessex. And if
that should not suffice, what higher honor for me, or for my daughter the
Queen-Dowager, than to devote our lands to the heroes who have won them
back for us?"
Hereward hoped inwardly that Gyda would be as good as her word; for her
greedy grasp had gathered to itself, before the Battle of Hastings, no
less than six-and-thirty thousand acres of good English soil.
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