We belong to a land where men are valued for what they are, not for what their dead ancestors might have been.

So has it been for ages in Saxon England, where my fathers, through Godwin, as thou sayest, might have been ceorls; and so, I have heard, it is in the land of the martial Danes, where my fathers, through Githa, reigned on the thrones of the North." "Thou dost well," said Algar, gnawing his lip, "to shelter thyself on the spindle side, but we Saxons of pure descent think little of your kings of the North, pirates and idolaters, and eaters of horseflesh; but enjoy what thou hast, and let Algar have his clue." "It is for the King, not his servant, to answer the prayer of Algar," said Harold, withdrawing to the farther end of the room.
Algar's eye followed him, and observing that the King was fast sinking into one of the fits of religious reverie in which he sought to be inspired with a decision, whenever his mind was perplexed, he moved with a light step to Harold, put his band on his shoulder, and whispered: "We do ill to quarrel with each other--I repent me of hot words--enough.
Thy father is a wise man, and sees far--thy father would have us friends.
Be it so.

Hearken my daughter Aldyth is esteemed not the least fair of the maidens in England; I will give her to thee as thy wife, and as thy morgen gift, thou shalt will for me from the King the earldom forfeited by thy brother Sweyn, now parcelled out amongst sub-earls and thegns--easy enow to control.

By the shrine of St.Alban, dost thou hesitate, man ?" "No, not an instant," said Harold, stung to the quick.

"Not, couldst thou offer me all Mercia as her dower, would I wed the daughter of Algar; and bend my knee, as a son to a wife's father, to the man who despises my lineage, while he truckles to my power." Algar's face grew convulsed with rage; but without saying a word to the Earl he strode back to Edward, who now with vacant eyes looked up from the rosary over which he had been bending, and said abruptly: "My lord the King, I have spoken as I think it becomes a man who knows his own claims, and believes in the gratitude of princes.