A repulse which a body of Londoners received from five hundred
Norman horse, renewed in the city the terror of the great defeat at
Hastings; the easy submission of all the inhabitants of Kent was an
additional discouragement to them; the burning of Southwark before
their eyes made them dread a like fate to their own city; and no man
any longer entertained thoughts but of immediate safety ana of
self-preservation. Even the Earls Edwin and Morcar, in despair of making
effectual resistance, retired with their troops to their own provinces;
and the people thenceforth disposed themselves unanimously to yield to
the victor. As soon as he passed the Thames at Wallingford, and reached
Berkhamstead, Stigand, the primate, made submissions to him: before
he came within sight of the city, all the chief nobility, and Edgar
Atheling himself, the new elected king, came into his camp, and declared
their intention of yielding to his authority.[**] They requested him to
mount their throne, which they now considered as vacant; and declare to
him, that as they had always been ruled by regal power, they desired to
follow, in this particular, the example of their ancestors, and knew of
no one more worthy than himself to hold the reins of government.
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