And then the fight went on, day after day, and more and more houses
burned, till York was all aflame. On the eighth day the minster was in a
light low over Archbishop Aldred's new-made grave. All was
burnt,--minster, churches, old Roman palaces, and all the glories of
Constantine the Great and the mythic past.
The besiegers, hewing and hammering gate after gate, had now won all but
the Keep itself. Then Malet's heart failed him. A wife he had, and
children; and for their sake he turned coward and fled by night, with a
few men-at-arms, across the burning ruins.
Then into what once was York the confederate Earls and Thanes marched in
triumph, and proclaimed Edgar king,--a king of dust and ashes.
And where were Edwin and Morcar the meanwhile? It is not told. Were they
struggling against William at Stafford, or helping Edric the Wild and his
Welshmen to besiege Chester? Probably they were aiding the
insurrection,--if not at these two points, still at some other of their
great earldoms of Mercia and Chester. They seemed to triumph for a while:
during the autumn of 1069 the greater part of England seemed lost to
William. Many Normans packed up their plunder and went back to France; and
those whose hearts were too stout to return showed no mercy to the
English, even as William showed none.
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