They sailed some way up the Ouse, and then struck inland towards York, but at Fulford were met by the Earls Edwin and Morcar, at the head of a numerous host. The earls, however, were defeated with heavy loss, and the city of York, after a mutual exchange of hostages with the invaders, agreed to open its gates to receive Harold Hardrada as their king, and to join him in a war against Harold of England. Harold Hardrada thereupon withdrew to Stamford Bridge, and it was there that Harold found him and the traitor Tostig. He had hastily gathered together an army consisting of his house-carls, thegns, and such men as could be collected on the spur of the moment, and advanced northwards by forced marches. On September the 25th he was in York, and, passing rapidly through it, fell upon the Northmen at Stamford Bridge, before they were aware that he was in the neighbourhood. The battle was fiercely contested, nevertheless, and though the Northmen, on the nearer side of the river Derwent, were driven into it and drowned, those on the farther side put themselves in battle array, and, by the time the English were over the bridge, were ready to meet them. After a tough contest, however, Harold Hardrada and Tostig were slain, and the enemy completely dispersed. According to the spirited account of Henry of Huntingdon, there was a parley between the two hosts before the battle, in which Harold offered Northumberland to Tostig, but to Harold Hardrada "six feet of the ground of England, or perchance more, seeing that he is taller than other men." This version of the story is, however, rejected by Professor Freeman, because of its inaccuracies of detail, though the conversation is consistent with what we know of the characters of Harold and Tostig. Harold was no less humane than brave. Instead of putting to death Olaf, the son of Hardrada, and the other captives who had fallen into his hands, he allowed them to go in peace. William of Malmesbury also relates that he offended a portion of his army by refusing them a share of the plunder, and that many in consequence abandoned his standard. [Illustration: WILLIAM I., SURNAMED THE CONQUEROR.] Had it not been for the impossibility of keeping the English host together, and for the absence of Harold in the north, it is difficult to see how William could ever have effected a landing. As it was, however, his course was perfectly unopposed upon the sea, and a landing was safely effected at Pevensey on September 29th, four days after the battle of Stamford Bridge. It is said that as William stepped on shore he fell, and rose with a morsel of earth in his hand, whereupon one of his followers happily remarked that he had taken seisin of the land. The investment, or seisin, in landed property was accomplished in those days by the lord presenting a clod of earth to his vassal, hence the remark was very pertinent. [Illustration: DEATH OF HAROLD AT THE BATTLE OF HASTINGS. (_See p._ 82.)]