Page:The Hastings Guide.pdf/41

continued several days to refresh his troops. From thence he marched along the shore to Hastings, where he built a Castle upon the hill, and garrisoned it. To such of the inhabitants as had not deserted their houses, he was extremely humane and affable, observing to his soldiers that it would not only be cruel, but impolitic, to spoil those whom he had hopes would soon become the props and supporters of his throne. During his stay there, the Duke one morning set out from the camp, attended by only fifteen horsemen, to take a view of the country ; but the roads being at that time very bad, and having ram bled a great distance, they lost their way ; and their horses being spent with fatigue, they were obliged to return on foot, encumbered with their arms and accoutrements. William Fitzofborne, one of the party, was so jaded and fatigued, being ready to faint under the weight of his armour, that the Duke, who was one of the strongest men of his time, took his helmet, and carried it for him to the camp - a circumstance which, though trivial in it elf, served to raise his character among the soldiers.