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Updated: June 20, 2025
Alfgar had volunteered to share the perils of his adopted lord, but was kindly told that it would be inexpedient. Indeed, by many he would have been suspected of treachery. "Nay, Alfgar, remain at home; to you I commend the protection of my home, of the Lady Hilda, and our children," said Elfwyn. Neither were Bertric's prayers to be allowed to share his father's perils any better received.
The island was full of foes, their fleet occupied the Solent. No; all that was left was to die with honour. But to bring such disgrace upon his father and his kindred! "Blood is thicker than water," says the old proverb, and Alfgar could not, even had he wished, ignore the ties of blood; nature pleaded too strongly. But there was a counter-motive even there the dying wishes of his mother.
"Come with me, or my father will disgrace himself." It was Canute. He led Alfgar forth into the courtyard. "Thou dost not seem to fear death," said the boy prince. "It would be welcome now." "So some of our people sometimes say, but the motive is different; tell me what is the secret of this Christianity?" Just then Sidroc and Anlaf came out from the hall and saw the two together.
"And now," said Edmund, "to the stables; the horses and cattle must be turned loose tonight, or the Danes will burn them in their barns and sheds." The farm buildings lay some little distance without, and the Etheling and Alfgar, with two or three farm servants, carried out the task hastily but effectually.
What they can be going to do, or what plot they are hatching, I cannot discover, only I fear that it is some design for vengeance upon the Danes some dark treachery plotted against those in our midst; and, if such is the case, I can but feel uneasy for poor Alfgar.
At this moment, Sidroc having seen Canute to the royal quarters, returned. "Sidroc," said Anlaf, "I cannot any longer be the jailor of my unhappy and rebellious son. Let him be confined till the morrow. I shall ask leave of absence from Sweyn, and now I deliver Alfgar to your care." "I accept the charge," said Sidroc; "follow me, Alfgar, son of Anlaf." Alfgar followed passively.
Not fully trusting impressions produced at such a moment, yet with a heavy vague sense of evil weighing him down like a nightmare, Alfgar lay and listened. At length he heard a sound which might have been produced by falling rain percolating through the roof, drop, drop upon the floor, but it was strange, for there was no sound of rain outside at that moment.
"Before he enters I must remind you all," said Edric, "that the word of a Dane is to be opposed to that of a Christian." "I have already said that Alfgar is a Christian." But Edric had already, by his adroit suggestion about St. Brice's day, predisposed the company to doubt the genuineness of Alfgar's conversion. A long pause succeeded, which no one seemed to care to break.
He and Alfgar were inseparable; they seemed to revive again the traditional love of Nisus and Euryalus, or Orestes and Pylades. The famine, which had made Wessex too poor even to serve as a bait for the Danes, had also afflicted Mercia, but not nearly so severely, and the generosity of the family of Aescendune had been exerted to the utmost on behalf of the sufferers.
They paused; all was so quiet that Alfgar yielded, and they passed round the mansion. The drawbridge was up, and no danger seemed near; the trees were in deep shadow, for the clouds, obscuring the moon, made the night very dark. Alfgar gave the signal, and the drawbridge was lowered; but they had scarcely set foot upon it when dark figures rushed from the shadows behind them.
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