You were coming to fetch me?"
"Yes, lady; Harold's body has not been found. Early this morning two monks
of Waltham, who had followed the army and seen the fight afar off, came
into camp, and with them Gytha, Harold's mother. She saw the duke, and
begged for Harold's body, offering its weight in gold if she might carry it
for burial to the Abbey of Waltham. The duke refused, saying that an
excommunicated man could not be buried in a holy place; she might remove
the bodies of her other two sons, but Harold's, when found, should be
buried by the seacoast. The monks searched in vain for the body. Beorn and
I have done the same, but have failed to recognize it in so vast a heap of
slain."
"I shall know it," Edith said. "Among a thousand dead I should know
Harold."
"It is a terrible sight, lady, for a woman to look upon," Wulf said gently.
"I shall see nothing but him," she replied firmly.
He accompanied her back to the battle-ground, where the two monks joined
her. Wulf, who was greatly shaken by the sight of her set and white face,
left her with them.
What the eye of friendship had failed to accomplish, that of love detected
unerringly. There were marks on Harold's body by which Edith recognized it.
One of the monks bore the news to the duke, who charged Sir William Malet
to superintend the burial, and to do it with all honour. The remains were
collected and reverently placed together. They were wrapped in a purple
robe, and laid on a litter.
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