United States or Bouvet Island ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
"Still, it may be our father and his men; they may have worn the spoils of the enemy." The spoils generally went the other way, Alfgar thought, but did not say. They crossed the ford in silence, intent only on reaching home. For a long time they could follow the trail of the horsemen. "Who can lead them?" said Bertric, as they bounded onward. "They seem to know the country."
Eating and drinking were over, and the old gleeman, striking his harp, was beginning a song of harvest home, when in rushed the two young theows who had gone out with Alfgar and Bertric, with the startling intelligence that there was a band of Northmen lurking in the woods, who had seized their young lords, and were, they thought, bent on attacking the place.
"Humble yourselves, and pray to God to reveal the truth," said he, and sprinkled them with holy water, after which the book of the Gospels was passed all round to be kissed. "Pray that God may reveal the truth," said he again. "We do so pray." Then Alfgar, who felt full of divine confidence, took his place at the end nearest the porch. He was given the book of the Gospels.
Today I noticed Alfgar, the son of Anlaf, at the high mass, and felt a little discomposed at the relaxation of discipline, which, contrary to the canons of the church, permits the unbaptized, as well as persons who ought rightly to be deemed excommunicate, or at least penitents, to be present at the holy mysteries.
There was no help for it; and commending courage with a significant look to his companion, the gleeman and Alfgar ascended. It was yet dark, and the language and appearance of each might pass tolerably under ordinary circumstances for the characters they had assumed. "Now a song, and we will keep it up till daylight."
Alfgar. o Cuthbert, 1034. o Bertha, 1050 m. Herstan. + Edgitha, 990. ii Curse of Dunstan. "In the year of our Lord's incarnation 979, Ethelred, son of Edgar and Elfrida, obtaining the kingdom, occupied, rather than governed it, for thirty-seven years. The career of his life is said to have been cruel in the beginning, wretched in the middle, and disgraceful in the end.
Edmund and Alfgar, with young Hermann, and all our fighting men, have gone out on their own account against them. July. The Danes elude all our troops. Edric persuades the king to go eastward, and the Danes are westward. They go westward, and the Danes are eastward. There is no chieftain. A witan is summoned; it will do no good. November. Northampton has fallen, cruelly fallen.
He has departed in all haste, taking Alfgar with him. It was the evening of a stormy day in April when a band of five hundred men, well armed and equipped, were seen approaching the Moor Gate of London. Their leader rode in front, a stalwart warrior, whose eagle eye and dauntless brow told of one born to command.
The bridge, which they both had passed, was actually rising, when the foremost Dane leapt upon it, but was rewarded by a blow from the battle-axe of Alfgar, which sent him tumbling into the snow; two or three others leapt forward and clung to the edge of the bridge, but fell into the ditch like the first; the two fugitives entered, and the gate was closed.
First and foremost was the king of Southern England, the valiant Ironside, and his attendant and friend Alfgar; Elfwyn and Father Cuthbert from Aescendune, with the Lady Hilda and Ethelgiva; Herstan, his wife Bertha, and son Hermann, from Clifton, with his sisters; and Ethelm, the new bishop of Dorchester, the successor of the martyred Ednoth.
Word Of The Day