Edwy the Fair or the First Chronicle of Aescendune

Northumbria.

  "Who is this?" cried the latter, as he saw Alfred and his attendantwaiting to receive him.

  "Alfred of Aescendune, with a petition for aid against Redwald, who hasseized his father's castle."

  "Alfred of Aescendune!" cried Edgar. "Halt, my friends, one moment.Alfred of Aescendune, tell me your story; to me, Edgar, your king."

  Alfred hastened to pour his tale of sorrows into an ear evidently notunsympathising, and when he had concluded Edgar asked--"And tell mewhat is your request. It shall be granted even to the uttermost."

  "Only that you, my lord, would hasten to our aid and deliver my brotherfor his poor widowed mother's sake."

  "We should send a troop against Redwald in any case, but even had ourplans been otherwise, know this, Alfred of Aescendune, that he who byhis devoted service saved the life, or at least the liberty, of Dunstan,the light of our realm of England, and the favourite of heaven, has aclaim to ask any favour Edgar can grant.

  "Siward, my father, bid the advanced guard bend its course towardsAescendune at once."

  "My lord, the men are too weary to travel all night. We had purposedhalting when we reached the battlefield on our march southward. There isa cross-country road thence to Aescendune, almost impassable in the night."

  "Then we will travel early in the morning; and doubt not, Alfred, weshall arrive in time to chastise this insolent aggressor. Redwald hasbeen my poor brother's evil spirit in all things; he shall die, I swearit," said the precocious Edgar, a man before his time.

  "But, my lord," said Alfred, "may I ask but one favour, that you willpermit me to proceed and relieve the anxiety of my people with thetidings of your approach?"

  "If you must leave our side, such an errand would seem to justify you.Poor Elfric! I remember him well. I could not have thought him in anydanger from Redwald."

  "Redwald is his, is our bitterest foe."

  "Indeed," said Edgar, and proceeded to elicit the whole history of thecase from Alfred.

  The sad tale was not complete till they reached the battlefield, andencamped in the entrenchments the young prince had occupied the nightbefore the combat.

  "We had intended," said Edgar, "to march at once for London, owing tonews we have received from the south, but we will tarry at Aescenduneuntil the work is completed there, even if it cost us our crown.

  "Nay, Siward, I may have my way this once. I am soldier enough to know Imay not leave an enemy behind me on my march."

  "But a small detachment might accomplish the work."

  "Then I will go with it myself; my heart is in it. But, Alfred, you lookvery ill; you cannot proceed tonight. When did you sleep last?"

  "Three nights ago."

  "Then it would be madness to proceed; you must sleep, and at early dawnyou shall precede us on my own charger--which has been led all the way--if your own is too wearied, and with an attendant or two in case ofdanger from man or beast. Nay, it must be so."

  Alfred, who could scarcely stand for very fatigue, was forced to yield,and that night he slept soundly in the camp of Edgar. At the first dawnthey aroused him from sleep, and he found a splendid warhorse awaitinghim--a gift, they told him, from Edgar. Two attendants, well mounted,awaited him in company with Oswy. He would willingly have dispensed withtheir company; but he was told that the king, anxious for his safety,had insisted upon their attending him, and that they were answerable forhis safe return to Aescendune, the country being considered dangerousfor travellers in its present disturbed state.

  So he yielded; and before the king had arisen he left the camp, after ahasty meal, and rode as rapidly as the roads would permit towards hisdesolated home.

  CHAPTER XXIII. LOVE STRONG AS DEATH.

  Meanwhile Father Swithin had gone alone and unprotected, save by hissacred character, into the very jaws of the lion; or rather, would havegone, had he been suffered to do so; for when he approached the hall hefound the drawbridge up, and the whole place guarded as in a state of siege.

  He advanced, nothing daunted, in front of the yawning gap where thebridge should have been, and cried aloud--"What ho! porter; I demandspeech of my lord Redwald."

  "You may demand speech--swine may demand pearls--but I don't thinkyou will get it. Deliver me your message."

  "Tell your lord, rude churl, that I, Father Swithin, of the holy Orderof St. Benedict, have come, in the name of the rightful owners of thishouse, and in the power of the Church, to demand that he deliver upElfric of Aescendune to the safe keeping of his friends."

  "I will send your message; but keep a civil tongue in your mouth, SirMonk, and don't begin muttering any of your accursed Latin, or I willsee whether the Benedictine frock is proof against an arrow."

  In a short time Redwald appeared on the roof, above the gateway.

  "What dost thou require, Sir Monk?" said he; "thy words sound strange inmy ears."

  "I am come, false traitor," said Father Swithin, waxing wroth, "todemand the person of Elfric of Aescendune, whom thou detainest contraryto God's law and the king's."

  "Elfric of Aescendune! right glad am I to hear that he is alive; myfollowers have brought me word that they saw him fall in battle."

  "Nay, spare thy deceit, thou son of perdition, for well do we know thathe was brought home wounded last night. One of his bearers escaped thytoils, even as a bird the snare of the fowler, and is now with us."

  "Assuredly the loon has lied unto you. Rejoiced should I be to see theunhappy youth, and to know that he yet lived. I but hold this place,faithful to his lord and mine, Edwy, King of all England."

  "Then why hast thou expelled the rightful dwellers therein from theirhouse and home? We know Elfric is with thee, and that thou art atraitor, wherefore, deliver him up, or we will even excommunicate thee."

  "Thou hadst better not begin in the hearing of the men who sit upon thewall; for myself, excommunication cannot hurt a man who never goes tochurch, and does not company over much with those who do."

  "Infidel! heretic! pagan! misbeliever! accursed Ragnar!" began the iratemonk, when an arrow, perhaps only meant to frighten him (for they couldhardly have missed so fair a mark), glanced by him.

  He retreated, but still continued his maledictions.

  "_Excommunicabo te, et omnes tibi adhaerentes_; thou art an accursedparricide, who hast raised thine hand against thy father's house. _Vaderetro, Sathanas_, I will shake off the dust of my feet against thee,"--another arrow stuck in his frock--"thou shalt share the fate of Sodom,yea of Gomorrha; _in manus inimici trado te_;" by this time his wordswere inaudible; and he departed, not having accomplished much good, buthaving nevertheless informed Redwald of two great facts--the first,that Elfric's return was blazed abroad; the second, that his ownidentity was more than suspected.

  "Ragnar!" said he, "What fiend has told them that? how came they tosuspect? Confusion! it will foil all my plans, and my vengeance will beincomplete. At least this one victim must not escape, and yet I hadsooner he should escape than any other member of the house. Poor boy!the sins of the fathers are heavy upon the children, as these Christianshave it; but my oath, my oath taken before a dying father! no; he must die!"

  So spake the avenger of blood, a man whose heart was evidently not allof iron; yet from childhood had he striven to restrain every tenderimpulse, and had bound himself to vengeance. Long years of peace inEngland had come between him and the execution of his projects, and hehad prepared himself for the task he never lost sight of, by acquiringall the accomplishments of a knight and warrior, and even of a man ofletters, at that court of Rouen, now rapidly becoming the focus ofEuropean chivalry, where the fierce barbarian Northmen were becoming therefined but ruthless Normans. Then, in England, he had wormed himselfinto the confidence of the future king with singular astuteness, and atlength had found the occasion he had long sought, in a manner the mostunforeseen save as a possible contingency.

  And now he turned from the battlements to his own chamber, but on theway he paused, for he passed the door of the late thane'
s room, wherepoor Elfric lay. He passed the sentinel and entered. The unhappy boy wasextended on the bed, in a raging fever; ever and anon he calledpiteously upon his father, then he cried out that Dunstan was pursuinghim, driving him into the pit, then he cried--"Father, I did notmurder thee; not I, thy son! nay, I always loved thee in my heart. Whois laughing? it is not Dunstan; break his chamber open, slay him: is amonk's blood redder than a peasant's? O Elgiva hast thou slain myfather? See, I am all on fire; it is thy doing. Edwy, my king, Dunstanis burning me: save me!"

  Then there was a long pause, and Redwald or Ragnar as we may now callhim stood over his unhappy cousin. The fair head lay back on the pillow,with its profusion of golden locks; the face was red and