Note 58 — PART II HISTORICAL STUDIES

Swend was in his rear, half England on his flank; before him reared their head the walls of dauntless Exeter.58 In that bleak wilderness of frost and snow his men were falling around him, and, in very bitterness of spirit, the Conqueror bowed himself for need. So, at least, I boldly suggest. He fell back on his 'arts of policy', and set himself to win by alluring terms the men whom he could not conquer. In the words of the Chronicle, he promised them well ('ac he heom well behet').