Caesar could ridicule and profane the mystic rites of Roman mythology, but he must still believe in his fortune, as in a god.

And Harold, in his very studies, seeing the freest and boldest minds of antiquity subjected to influences akin to those of his Saxon forefathers, felt less shame in yielding to them, vain as they might be, than in monkish impostures so easily detected.

Though hitherto he had rejected all direct appeal to the magic devices of Hilda, the sound of her dark sayings, heard in childhood, still vibrated on his soul as man.
Belief in omens, in days lucky or unlucky, in the stars, was universal in every class of the Saxon.

Harold had his own fortunate day, the day of his nativity, the 14th of October.

All enterprises undertaken on that day had hitherto been successful.