Note 1091 — Chapter XV · THE NORMAN INVASION AND THE CAMPAIGN OF HASTINGS.[1055]
Reading edition
Will. Pict. 123. “Quid consulatur, quid apparetur apud nos, certior eum quam velit, et opinione ejus citior, index, quippe mea præsentia, docebit.” This “index” is exactly the αὐτὸς ἄγγελος of Herodotus.
It is here that William of Poitiers brings in those fears and hesitations among the Normans, which, as I have said elsewhere (see above, pp. 293, 294, and Appendix W), clearly belong to another part of the story. William is made to tell the spy that he will be in England within a year, and the Normans say that it is impossible that a fleet should be got ready within the year. This language could not have been used at a moment when the fleet was ready to sail, and was simply waiting for a fair wind.