Part 23 (1/2)

”Oh, nothing, my lord!” said he, resuming his wonted aspect with difficulty, but at last becoming calm as a lake when the wind has died away. ”Only a sudden spasm.”

”I hope you are not ill?”

”No, my lord; you need not really feel anxious concerning me.

”The hall of Aescendune appears a pleasant place for a summer residence,” he added.

”I have been there before,” said the king. ”Spent some weeks there. Yes; I thought it a great change for the better then, after the musty odour of sanct.i.ty which reigned in the palace of my uncle the monk, but all things go by comparison. I might not relish a month there now.”

”Yet it looks like a place formidable for its kind, and it might not be amiss to persuade the worthy old thane to receive a garrison there, so that if the worst came to the worst we might have a place of refuge, otherwise the Mercians would soon have possession of it.”

”Ella is one of themselves.”

”But the rebel Edgar may not forgive him for entertaining us!”

”He can hardly help himself. Still, the smoke of those fires, which, I trust, betokens good cheer; and the peaceful aspect of that party coming out to meet us, in the midst of whom I recognise old Ella and his son Alfred, Elwy's brother, does not look much like compulsion.”

”Making the best of a bad bargain, perhaps.”

”I prefer to think otherwise.”

At this moment the two parties met, and Edwy at once dismounted from his courser with that bewitching and kingly grace which became ”Edwy the Fair.” He advanced gracefully to the old thane, and, presenting the customary mark of homage, embraced him as a son might embrace a father --”For,” said he, ”Elfric has taught me to revere you as a father even if Aescendune had not taught me before then. I robbed you of your son, now I offer you two sons, Elfric and myself.”

The tears stood in the old man's eyes at this reception, and the mention of his dear prodigal son.

”He is well, I hope?” said he, striving to speak with such sternness and dignity as sell-respect taught in opposition to natural feeling.

”Well and happy; and I trust you will see him in a day or two, when we shall have chastised our rebels; justice, mingled with mercy, must first have its day.”

”Where is he now?”

”With the main body of the army; in fact, he is my right hand. It is my fault, not his, that he is not here now; but we could not both leave, and he preferred that I should come and proffer my filial duty first, and perhaps that I should a.s.sure you of his love and duty, however appearances may have seemed against him.”

Then the eye of Edwy caught Alfred. It must be remembered that Elfric had kept the secret of his brother's supposed death, even from the king.

”And of Alfred, too, I have ever been reminded by his brother; your name has seldom been long absent from our conversation.”

Alfred reddened.

”I trust now,” he continued, ”that I may profitably renew an acquaintance suspended for three years. I am but young, only in my eighteenth year, and I have no father; let me find one in the wisest of the Mercians.”

So bewitching was the grace of the fair speaker that he seemed to carry all before him. Ella began to think he must have misjudged the king.

Alfred alone, who knew much more of the relations between the king and the Church than his father, still suspended his belief in these most gracious words.

Leaning upon the still powerful arm of Ella, his young agile form contrasting strongly with the powerful build of the old thane-- powerful even in decay--they came in front of the hall, where the serfs and va.s.sals all received them with joyful acclamations, and amidst the general homage the king entered the hall.

There he reverentially saluted the lady Edith.

”The mother of my friend, my brother, Elfric, is my mother also,” said he.