with such troops as could keep pace with him , and such levies of the Southern Counties as could be got together, he should drive the Norman invader into the sea with greater ease than he had routed the Norwegians.
The news could hardly have reached him before the 1st, whilst on the 6th he must have been in London , where he remained six days; for the soldiers who had surprised Hardrada by one of the most wonderful marches on record , could hardly repeat such a march some six days later. He had , therefore, to send messengers forth, east and west, and north and south , to summon the southern array. In those six days he would be rejoined by some of his warriors from the north, and at their head , and with such levies as had obeyed his summons, would hurry on like mad ; or, as William 's chaplain has it, Rex furibundus, and as so reported by the Norman horse , sent out by Count Eustace to explore the country , and who retired before the advance of Harold . Many of Harold 's troops, especially the mercenaries, were well armed, but the hastily raised country levies could have added but little to his strength, having only clubs, and picks, and iron forks and stakes. Many were without arms, and all were exhausted with their march, especially the veterans who had come all the way from York . With such a force -- which, from the position it occupied, and the shortness of time for raising it, I judge to have been under 20,000 men -- he emerged from the woods on to the plateau now occupied by the town of Battle and the Abbey lands, never dreaming of halting there longer than was necessary to -
