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Updated: June 20, 2025
It requires more bravery to forgive sometimes than to avenge." "I can well believe that, my lord." "Well, if my path has been beset with foes, so has it with friends. Such love as yours, Alfgar, I say as yours has been! well, few kings share such affections." "My lord, you first loved me; at least you saved me from a fearful death."
After we had arrayed the Etheling and Alfgar this morning, I decided to accompany them on their road to Dorchester, for it happened that I had arranged to say mass and preach tomorrow at the little church of St. Michael at Clifton, the residence of my sister Bertha and her husband Herstan.
We have been able to learn nothing of Alfgar; but we think that Anlaf probably yet lives, and that he has recovered his son; yet we cannot imagine how he escaped on St. Brice's night. Well, to return. We at once set to work, and erected a church of timber, for the service of God; and I said mass in it the first Sunday after our arrival there.
"Then you shall have two, for I will die with him," cried Alfgar, comprehending at once that the death by which Saint Edmund of East Anglia, and many a martyr since, had glorified God, was destined for his companion, his brother.
Reluctant as Edmund was to leave the city, it was evident that if he delayed another day he might indeed share the perils of the inhabitants, but would probably lose Wessex, where his immediate presence was all-important. Therefore he called Alfgar, and bade him prepare at once for a journey to the west.
Alfgar, bid the women and children prepare to leave the hall as the fire spreads; and you, Herstan, see that if the worst comes to the worst, the retreat to the river is made in order. We will defend the place if necessary till the last man, and cover your retreat; but all is not lost yet.
But no screams of distress or agony pierced the air from two hundred women and children, and Alfgar hoped, oh, so earnestly! that they might have escaped, warned in time by the theows. With this hope he was forced to rest content, as hour after hour rolled by, and at length the footsteps of a returning party were heard.
But when all these congratulations were over, and we had learned all that Alfgar had to tell, there was evidently something on the mind of the prince. "Alfgar and I have a very important duty to perform," he said. I waited, and he proceeded. "There has been grievous treachery in our ranks. Edric Streorn has sold us to the Danes." "I feared as much," said I, sadly.
Onward came the Danes, in three parties, to attack the three sides of the building. The arrows diminished their numbers, but stayed them not. They left a struggling dark line upon the ground, but the wounded had to care for themselves. Edmund rushed to command the defence at the gate, leaving Alfgar to superintend that upon the right hand, and Herstan on the left.
And while he slept he was wakened, yet but partly wakened, by a voice which seemed to belong to the borderland 'twixt sleep and waking. "Alfgar, son of Anlaf, sleepest thou?" "Surely I dream," thought he, and strove to sleep again. "Alfgar, son of Anlaf, sleepest thou?"
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