William monologue (Act 10) — Queen Mary; and, Harold

Leave them. Let them be! Bury him and his paramour together. He that was false in oath to me, it seems Was false to his own wife. We will not give him A Christian burial: yet he was a warrior, And wise, yea truthful, till that blighted vow Which God avenged to-day. Wrap them together in a purple cloak And lay them both upon the waste sea-shore At Hastings, there to guard the land for which He did forswear himself--a warrior--ay, And but that Holy Peter fought for us, And that the false Northumbrian held aloof, And save for that chance arrow which the Saints Sharpen'd and sent against him--who can tell?-- Three horses had I slain beneath me: twice I thought that all was lost. Since I knew battle, And that was from my boyhood, never yet-- No, by the splendour of God--have I fought men Like Harold and his brethren, and his guard Of English. Every man about his king Fell where he stood. They loved him: and, pray God My Normans may but move as true with me To the door of death. Of one self-stock at first, Make them again one people--Norman, English; And English, Norman; we should have a hand To grasp the world with, and a foot to stamp it ... Flat. Praise the Saints, It is over. No more blood! I am king of England, so they thwart me not, And I will rule according to their laws. (_To_ ALDWYTH.) Madam, we will entreat thee with all honour.