Editorial note — APPENDIX.
Reading edition
It is not at all probable that Hereward was ever devout enough to make such a pilgrimage to Canterbury, but the hero of a tale must come to the front in all the great valourous acts of his time.
The man who first resisted the outrage of Eustace and his followers, was a burgher of Dover—whose name is unknown—a general conflict ensued, twenty of the people of Dover were killed, and nineteen of the Normans, (others wounded no doubt), but Eustace appears to have found it necessary to retire,—he returned to Eadward, then at Gloucester, and told the tale to his own advantage; this affair caused a rupture between the king and Earl Godwine and led to the fall of the latter.