The Norman armament, proceeding in great order, arrived, without any
material loss, at Pevensey, in Sussex; and the army quietly disembarked.
The duke himself, as he leaped on shore, happened to stumble and fall;
but had the presence of mind, it is said, to turn the omen to his
advantage, by calling aloud that he had taken possession of the country.
And a soldier, running to a neighboring cottage, plucked some thatch,
which, as if giving him seizin of the kingdom, he presented to his
general. The joy and alacrity of William and his whole army was so
great, that they were nowise discouraged, evan when they heard of
Harold's great victory over the Norwegians. They seemed rather to wait
with impatience the arrival of the enemy.
The victory of Harold, though great and honorable, had proved in the
main prejudicial to his interests, and may be regarded as the immediate
cause of his ruin. He lost many of his bravest officers and soldiers
in the action, and he disgusted the rest by refusing to distribute the
Norwegian spoils among them; a conduct which was little agreeable to his
usual generosity of temper, but which his desire of sparing the people,
in the war that impended over him from the duke of Normandy, had
probably occasioned.
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