And if
such an England could have endured how changed would have been the
whole destiny of Europe. I am not sure after all that we ought not to
be as uplifted by the memory of Hastings as we are or should be by the
memory of Caesar's advent. At any rate since Hastings was fought and
won in the eleventh century any national prejudices that belong wholly
to the modern world are quite as much out of place with regard to it as
they are with regard to Caesar or St Augustine. And if we must be
indignant and remember old injuries that as often as not were sheer
blessings, scarcely in disguise, let us reserve our hatred, scorn and
contempt for those damned pagan and pirate hordes that first from
Schleswig-Holstein and later from Denmark descended upon our Christian
country, and for a time overwhelmed us with their brutish barbarism.
As for me I am for the Duke of Normandy; without him England were not
the England of my heart.
Now the great and beautiful road up out of Hastings, seven miles into
Battle, is not only one of the loveliest in Britain, every yard of it
is full of Duke William's army, and thence we may see how in its
wonderful simplicity all that mighty business which was decided that
October morning on the hill-top that for so long Battle Abbey guarded
as a holy place, was accomplished.
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