Note 1255 — Chapter XV · THE NORMAN INVASION AND THE CAMPAIGN OF HASTINGS.[1055]

Will. Pict. 131. “Accelerabat ... Rex furibundus ... nocturno etiam incursu aut repentino minùs cautos opprimere cogitabat.” He then goes on to tell of the seven hundred ships. See Appendix AA. So Will. Gem. vii. 35, 36; “Ducem incautum accelerans præoccupare, totâ nocte equitans [Heraldus] in campo belli apparuit manè. Dux verò nocturnos præcavens excursus hostis, inchoantibus tenebris ad gratissimam usque lucem exercitum jussit esse in armis.” William of Poitiers makes the fight begin directly on the approach of the English army, and William of Jumièges puts it the same day. The last messages between William and Harold are thus cut out, and William of Poitiers leaves no room for the two different ways of spending the night. But William of Poitiers is always careless of chronology, and William of Jumièges is here ignorant of it (see Appendix GG). Wace makes the English reach Senlac on Thursday night, and a day is spent in the messages. He says (12110) of Thursday night,

“Normanz cele nuit se gaitierent,

E tote nuit armé veillierent;

Tote nuit furent en suspeiz,

Kar dit lor fu ke li Engleiz

Cele nuit tresk’à els vendreient

E cele nuit les assaldreient.

Ço meismes les Engleiz cremeient

Ke Normanz la nuit les guerreient;

Issi unt tote nuit veillié,

Li uns por li altres gaitié.”

All this proves the existence of a very natural expectation on both sides, but it proves nothing as to Harold’s real intentions. An examination of the ground is enough to show what Harold’s plan really was.