Highlands Ranch High School - Mr. Sedivy
Highlands Ranch, Colorado

The Entire Bayeux Tapestry - Part III

Men-at-arms lift shields above their heads as they cross the estuary. Suddenly, treacherous quicksand clutches at the feet of men and horses. Harold comes to the rescue. In a heroic feat long-remembered, Harold carries one man on his back and drags another to safety on the shore.

Panicked at word of the approaching Normans, Conan slithers down a rope from Dol Castle - even though he never in fact captured the fortress. Wearing helmets with nose pieces and knee-length hauberks of chain mail, the knights give chase past the city of Rennes.

They run the slippery Conan to ground at the castle of Dinan. When spears and missiles prove ineffective, the Normans resort to fire. Torches of pinewood and resin set the fortifications burning. A despairing Conan surrenders the fortress keys to William on the tip of his lance.

Arms for a valiant soldier: William sets a helmet on Harold's head and dresses him in a new tunic of mail. Having already rescued him from Count Guy, William by this act forges yet another link in the chain of obligations that binds the Englishman to him.

At Bonneville sur Touques, or at Bayeux as the tapestry maintains, the enthroned duke calls his barons together for a momentous event. Harold, between two shrines, swears on hallowed relics, bones of saints, to aid William in securing the English throne. Homeward bound, Harold stands beside the mast of his ship.

Sail ho! A lookout spies Harold's vessel. Anxious faces peer from windows of a seaside manor. In London the aged and bearded King Edward welcomes Harold to the palace of Westminster. Nearby stands the new Westminster Abbey of St. Peter.