His spirit seemed to have risen from the weight it took from the sluggish blood of his father, Ethelred the Unready, and to have remounted to the brighter and earlier sources of ancestral heroes.
Worthy in that hour he seemed to boast the blood and wield the sceptre of Athelstan and Alfred.

[77] Thus spoke the King: "Right worthy and beloved, my ealdermen, earls, and thegns of England; noble and familiar, my friends and guests, counts and chevaliers of Normandy, my mother's land; and you, our spiritual chiefs, above all ties of birth and country, Christendom your common appanage, and from Heaven your seignories and fiefs,--hear the words of Edward, the King of England under grace of the Most High.

The rebels are in our river; open yonder lattice, and you will see the piled shields glittering from their barks, and hear the hum of their hosts.

Not a bow has yet been drawn, not a sword left its sheath; yet on the opposite side of the river are our fleets of forty sail--along the strand, between our palace and the gates of London, are arrayed our armies.

And this pause because Godwin the traitor hath demanded truce and his nuncius waits without.