Part 17 (2/2)

At this moment he was startled by a demoniacal burst of laughter, which seemed to fill the corridor in which he waited with exultant joy.

What could it be? he felt as if he had never heard such laughter before --so terrible, yet so boisterous.

A moment of dread silence, and then it began again, and filled each corridor and chamber.

At that moment Dunstan came forth, and saw the pale face of Alfred.

”It is only the devil,” he said ”we are not ignorant of his devices.

”O Satan! thou that wert once an angel in heaven, art thou reduced to bray like a jacka.s.s?” [xxii]

Again the exultant peal resounded.

”Be at peace,” said the abbot; ”thou rejoicest at my departure; I shall soon return to defy thee and thy allies.”

And the laughter ceased.

”We must lose no time,” he said; ”the moment is at hand.”

Locking each door behind him, he reached the party in the courtyard, and each person mounted in a moment; then they pa.s.sed under the great archway. Oswy had remained behind one moment to lock the great gates, and then they all rode forth boldly into the darkness.

They pa.s.sed rapidly in a direction at right angles to that in which their pursuers were approaching, and at the distance of a mile they halted for one moment to ascertain the cause of a great uproar which suddenly arose. It was not difficult to divine its cause: it was the heating of axes and hammers on the great outer door of the monastery.

”It will occupy them nearly an hour,” said Dunstan, ”and we shall be far far away before they have succeeded in effecting an entrance.”

So they rode on rapidly into the night. Before them lay the Foss Way, the road was good and well known to them, the moon was s.h.i.+ning brightly, and their spirits rose with the excitement and the exertion. Onward! Onward!

CHAPTER XII. AT HIS WORST.

The unhappy Elfric had indeed fallen from his former self before he reached the depth at which our readers have just seen him, joining with Redwald in the unhallowed enterprise so happily frustrated, if indeed it were yet frustrated, by his own brother.

But when his father had returned to Aescendune alone, Elfric felt that home ties were shattered, and that he had nothing but the royal favour to depend upon, so he yielded to the wishes of King Edwy in all points.

Immediately after his coronation, the reckless and ill-advised Edwy had married Elgiva, [xxiii] in defiance of the ban of the Church, and then had abandoned himself to the riotous society and foolish counsels of young n.o.bles vainer than those who cost Rehoboam so large a portion of his kingdom. Amongst these Elfric was soon conspicuous and soon a leader. His spirit and physical courage far beyond his years excited their admiration, and in return they taught him all the mysteries of evil which were yet unknown to him.

Under such influences both the king and his favourite threw off all outward semblance even of religion, and only sought the means of enjoyment. Redwald ministered without reserve or restraint to all their pleasures, and under his evil influence Edwy even found occasion to rob and plunder his own grandmother, a venerable Saxon princess, in order that he might waste the ill-gotten substance in riotous living.

Yet there was a refinement in his vice: he did not care for coa.r.s.e sensual indulgence to any great extent; his wickedness was that of a sensitive cultivated intellect, of a highly-wrought nervous temperament.

Unscrupulous--careless of truth--contemptuous of religion--yet he had all that attraction in his person which first endeared him to Elfric, whom he really loved. Alas! his love was deadly as the breath of the upas tree to his friend and victim. When the first measures of vengeance were taken against Dunstan, with the concurrence of wicked but able ministers of state, Redwald was selected as the agent who should bribe the thanes, and begin the course of conduct which should eventually lead to the destruction of the enemy of the king. He had only waited till the temper of the times seemed turned against Dunstan (he judged it wrongly); and the king seemed secure against every foe ere he planned the expedition we have introduced to our readers.

We will now resume the thread of our narrative.

When the band of soldiers, headed by Redwald, had gained the gates of the monastery, they found them, as we have seen, firmly locked and barred.

”Blow your horns; rouse up these sleepy monks to some purpose,” said Redwald. ”Why, they have not a light about the place.”

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