To them repaired Edwin and Morcar, the two young Earls, Arkill and Karl,
"the great Thanes," or at least the four sons of Karl,--for accounts
differ,--and what few else of the northern nobility Tosti had left
unmurdered.
The men of Northumberland received the Danes with open arms. They would
besiege York. They would storm the new Norman Keep. They would proclaim
Edgar king at York.
In that Keep sat two men, one of whom knew his own mind, the other did
not. One was William Malet, knight, one of the heroes of Hastings, a noble
Norman, and chatelain of York Castle. The other was Archbishop Aldred.
Aldred seems to have been a man like too many more,--pious and virtuous
and harmless enough, and not without worldly prudence; but his prudence
was of that sort which will surely swim with the stream, and "honor the
powers that be," if they be but prosperous enough. For after all, if
success be not God, it is like enough to Him in some men's eyes to do
instead. So Archbishop Aldred had crowned Harold Godwinsson, when Harold's
star was in the ascendant. And who but Archbishop Aldred should crown
William, when his star had cast Harold's down from heaven? He would have
crowned Satanas himself, had he only proved himself king _de facto_--as he
asserts himself to be _de jure_--of this wicked world.
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