A few
only the next morning were found breathing among the mass of dead, and some
of these survived and returned at last to their homes: for William,
satisfied with the complete victory he had gained, issued orders that all
found alive on the field were to be well treated. He felt that he was now
King of England, and that clemency was his best policy. Permission was
given to the women who flocked in from the country round, to search for the
bodies of their friends and to remove them for burial He also commanded a
search to be made for the body of Harold, but during the night, while the
exhausted soldiers slept heavily after their labours, the camp-followers
had been busy with the work of plunder, busiest round the spot where the
standards had stood, for here were stores of gold bracelets and rings, the
emblems of authority of the thanes, to be collected, and rich garments to
be carried off. Thus then, the heaps of corpses that marked the spot where
the fighting had all day been heaviest, were unrecognizable, so terrible
had been the wounds dealt by sword, battle-axe, and mace.
De Burg had kept Wulf and Beorn with him all night, and they had lain down
and slept together. In the morning he committed them to the charge of some
of his personal followers, while he went to the duke to inform him of what
he had done.
"Thank you, De Burg," William said; "they are two brave young fellows. I
marked them in the fight more than once when I was near the standard, and I
should have grieved if ill had befallen them, for they did me loyal
service.
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