Britain ... - Blue-Lite

Scene II.] THE VARANGIAN. 329
They
WALTHEOF.
dare do all that is most vile and base :
Oppression, rapine, lust, and flames, and blood,
Are ever their attendants. I proclaim
Proudly, that England ne'er was conquered yet
By all your Norman hordes, who hither flocked
Like eagles to the banquet of the slain.
William, our sovereign, he to whom I owe
A faithful liegeman's homage, whose just rights
God and my sword defend, by the free choice
And will of England was enthroned her King,
When on his head the sacred balm she poured,
By her great chiefs, with pealing trump and shou t.
Yet then did ye your murderous work begin,
And Norman swords were dyed in Saxon blood.
That is day long since :
past yet some there are
Who never will that fatal day forget.
But Normans now one King o'er all should meet
The English as kind brothers.
OSMOND.
True : as thou
Didst like a loving brother meet the Normans
With all thine armed Saxon hordes at York.
Talk'st thou of brotherhood ? Where was it when
Ye made the streets of that proud city flow
With streams of Norman blood ? not sparing one
Of all there found, thy sovereign's bravest friends.
Talk'st thou of loyalty ? Where was thy faith
When thou didst join the invading host of Denmark,
And all the north to insurrection stirred,
Proclaiming for thy king the Etheling Edgar ?
Till on the banks of Tees the Conqueror met
Thy rebel bands who ; fled, and left thee
crouching
For mercy at the generous victor's feet ?