Beyond a short pause for food there was no
delay. Harold's thoughts were on the South, and he grudged every hour that
delayed his return to his post there. The men of the city and the
survivors of the army defeated at Fulford joined the force, which kept on
its way east to Stamford Bridge. The invaders, believing that Northumbria
lay at their feet, and without a thought that Harold was advancing, were
encamped in careless security on the low ground by the river. The greater
portion of their host had crossed the bridge; their king, Tostig, and many
of the great chiefs had taken up their abode in the royal palace at Aldby,
and were preparing to return to York, where the king was to hold his court
and formally to assume the government and to proclaim the laws for his new
kingdom.
Already the cortege had set out, clad not in warlike armour but in court
habiliments, when on the long road leading gently down to the river a cloud
of dust and the sparkle of arms was seen. There was little room for doubt
as to the nature of the arriving force. Northumbria could gather no array
that would venture thus to approach the army that had but five days before
crushed the levies of the North. It could only be Harold himself who, with
the men of the South, had thus unexpectedly arrived. Tostig at once
proposed a retreat to the ships at Riccall, so that the whole army might be
gathered together, but Harold Hardrada strove to marshal his army for the
battle, at the same time sending off mounted messengers to summons the
party left at the ships.
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