"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.
Then he was conducted to his chamber, where the bath was provided for him, and unguents for anointing himself, after which, accepting the loan of a change of clothing more suitable than his travelling apparel, he received the visit of Ella, who came to conduct him to the banquet.
All this while his followers had been received according to their several degrees; and a board was spread, of necessity, in a barn, for the due feasting of the soldiers of Edwy and the va.s.sals of Aescendune; while the officers and the chief tenants of the family met at the royal table in the great hall once before introduced to our readers.
It boots not to repeat an oft-told tale, to describe the banquet in all its prodigal luxury, to tell how light the casks in the cellars of Aescendune seemed afterwards, how empty the larder; suffice it to say that in due course the banquet was ended, the toasts were drunk, and, with an occasional interlude in the gleeman"s song and the harper"s wild music, the conversation was at its height. Wine and wa.s.sail unloosed men"s tongues.
Redwald sat near the king, who had introduced him to Ella as a dear friend both to him and his son--"a very Mentor," he said, "who, since the unhappy quarrel into which my counsellors forced me--yes, forced me--with Dunstan, has done more to keep Elfric and me straight in our morals than at one time I should have thought possible for any man to do.
"Redwald, you need not blush; it is true, and your king is proud to own it."
Redwald was not exactly blushing; he had spent the interval before the banquet in looking eagerly and wistfully all round the house, and now his countenance had a cold composure, which made it seem as if he had never known emotion; still he answered fittingly to the king"s humour:
"Alack, my lord, such credit is due only to the blessed saints, especially St. Wilfred, whom you first learned to love at Aescendune, as you have often told me."
"Yes," said Edwy; "you remember, Ella, how I used to steal away even from the chase, and visit his chapel at the priory which your worthy father founded. Truly, I mused upon the saint so much that I marvel he appeared not to me; I think he did once."
"Indeed!" exclaimed his auditors.
"Yes; I had been musing upon my condition as a poor orphan boy, deprived of my brave father--he was your friend, Ella!--when methought a figure in the dress of a very ancient bishop, stood beside me, yet immaterial as the breeze of evening. "Thy prayer is heard" said he to me; "thou hast brought many gifts to St. Wilfred; he shall send thee one, even a friend." It was fulfilled in Elfric."
"Truly, it was marvellous," said Father Cuthbert, who listened with open mouth. "I doubt not it was our sainted patron."
Alfred said nothing; his recollections of Edwy"s days at Aescendune did not embrace many hours in the chapel of St. Wilfred.
The great wonderment of Ella may be conceived: he had always mourned over Edwy as a headstrong youth, dead to religion, and now he was called upon to contemplate him in so different a light. The reader may wonder at his credulity, but if he had listened to the sweet voice of the beautiful king, had gazed into that innocent-looking face--those eyes which always seemed to meet the gaze, and never lowered themselves or betrayed their owner--he would, perhaps, have been deceived too; yet Edwy was overdoing it, and a look from Redwald warned him of the fact.
He took the other line.
"Alas!" he said, "I have been very very unworthy of St. Wilfred"s fond interest in me, and may have done very rash things; but some day the saint may rejoice in me again, and then he shall not find in me a rebellious son."
Further than this he was not disposed to go, for in truth he felt himself sickened by his very success in deceit, although half disposed to be proud of it at the same time. But Redwald had taken up the conversation.
"These halls of yours seem old, venerable thane; has your family long dwelt under this hospitable roof?"
"My remote ancestor fought by the side of Cynric in the victories which led to the foundation of Mercia."
"Ah! many a sad yet glorious tale and legend for the gleeman"s harp, doubtless, adorns your annals."
"Not many; we have our traditions."
"For instance, is there one connected with the foundation of the priory hard by?"
"It is of recent date, my father built it."
"Strange, for generally these old places are reared up by repentant sinners, mourning over the sins they have committed, or the day of grace they have cast away; is there no tale attached to your foundation?"
"Alas! there is; but it is one whose stain is all too recent, one we cannot recount, or suffer gleeman"s harp to set to music, lest we harrow the yet bleeding wound."
Redwald could not ask more; the answer was too plain and distinct, and so he was forced to repress his curiosity.