Part 39 (1/2)

Immediately after the service he repaired to the palace, and put in his name. Numbers, like himself, were awaiting an audience, but only a few minutes had pa.s.sed ere an usher came into the antechamber and informed him that Dunstan requested his immediate presence.

He followed the usher amidst the envy of many who had the prospect of a long detention ere they could obtain the same favour, and soon he had clasped Dunstan's hand and knelt for his blessing.

”Nay! rise up, my son, it is thine: _Deus benedicat et custodiat te, in omnibus viis tuis_. Thinkest thou, my son, thy name has been forgotten in my poor prayers? G.o.d made thee His instrument, but thou wast a very very willing one; and now, my son, wherein can I serve thee? Thou hast but to speak.”

Thus encouraged, Alfred told all his tale, and Dunstan listened with much emotion.

”Yet two days and I will be with you at Aescendune. Go back and comfort thy brother; he shall indeed have my forgiveness, and happy shall I be as an amba.s.sador of Christ to fulfil the blessed office of restoring the lost sheep to the fold, the prodigal to his Heavenly Father.”

When Alfred returned to Aescendune he found Elfric eagerly awaiting him; he had not been so well in the absence of his brother, and every one saw symptoms of the coming end.

Still he seemed so happy when Alfred delivered his message that every one remarked it, and that evening he sat up later than usual, listening as Father Cuthbert read for the hundredth time his favourite story from King Alfred's Anglo-Saxon version of the Gospels, the parable of the prodigal son, which had filled his mind on the night after the battle; then he spoke to his mother about past days, before a cloud came between him and his home; and talked of his father, and of the little incidents of early youth. Always loving, he was more so than usual that night, as if he felt time was short in which to show a son's love.

That night his mother came, as she always came, when he was asleep, to his chamber to gaze upon him, when she was struck by the difficulty of his breathing; she felt alarmed when she saw the struggles he seemed to make for breath, and saw the damp sweat upon his brow, so she called Alfred.

Alfred saw at once that his brother was seriously worse, and summoned Father Cuthbert, who no sooner gazed upon him than he exclaimed that the end was near.

During all that night he breathed heavily and with difficulty, as if each breath would be the last. Towards morning, however, he rallied, and immediate danger seemed gone, although only for a short time.

He sat up for the last time that day. It was a lovely day in May, and in the heat of the day he seemed to drink in the sweet atmosphere, as it came gently through the open window, laden with the scents of a hundred flowers. Often his lips moved as if in prayer, and sometimes he spoke to his brother, and asked when Dunstan would come; but he was not equal to prolonged conversation.

At length one of the ceorls came riding in to say that the Bishop, with his retinue, was approaching the village, and Father Cuthbert went out to meet him. The impatient anxiety of poor Elfric became painful to witness.

”He is coming, Elfric! he is coming!” said Alfred from the window. ”I see him near; see! he stops to salute Father Cuthbert, whom he knew years ago; I must go down to receive him.

”Mother! You stay with Elfric.”

A sound as of many feet; another moment, a firm step was heard upon the stairs, and Dunstan entered the room.

He advanced to the bed, while all present stood in reverent silence, and gazed upon the patient with a look of such affection as a father might bestow upon a dying son as he took the weak nerveless hand.

Elfric looked round with a mute appeal which they all comprehended, and left him alone with Dunstan.

”Father, pardon me!” he said.

”Thou askest pardon of me, my son--of me, a sinner like thyself; I cannot tell thee how freely I give it thee; and now, my son, unburden thyself before thy G.o.d, for never was it known that one pleaded to Him and was cast out.”

When, after an interval, Dunstan summoned the lady Edith and Alfred back into the room, a look cf such calm, placid composure, such satisfied happiness, sat upon his worn face, that they never forgot it.

”Surely,” thought they, ”such is the expression the blessed will wear in heaven.”

And then, in their presence, Dunstan administered the Blessed Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ to the happy penitent; it was the first Communion which he had willingly made since he first left home, a bright happy boy of fifteen; and words would fail to describe the deep faith and loving penitence with which he gathered his dying strength to receive the Holy Mysteries.

And then Dunstan administered the last of all earthly rites--the holy anointing;[x.x.xiii] while amidst their tears the mourners yet thought of Him Who vouchsafed to be anointed before He sanctified the grave to be a bed of hope to His people.

”Art thou happy now, my son?” said Dunstan, when all was over.

”Happy indeed! happy! yes, so happy!”

They were almost the last words he said, until an hour had pa.s.sed and the sun had set, leaving the bright clouds suffused in rich purple, when he sat up in the bed.