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The good father was a man of sound sense but of much affection, and at first he could not credit that the boy he had loved so well, Elfric of Aescendune, should have grown to be the associate of murderers, for such only could either he or Alfred style the agents of Edwy's wrath. But, once fully convinced, he was equal to the emergency.
"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.
So the father saw his boy alone, and communicated the contents of the letter. The news was indeed welcome to Elfric, who panted for travel and adventure and the freedom he fancied he should get in Edwy's society. But Ella hardly perceived this, and enlarged upon the dangers to which his son would be exposed, and tried to put before the boy all the "pros " and "cons" of the question faithfully.
Sincerely truthful and straightforward, he hardly knew whether to feel more disgust or surprise at Edwy's evident unfaithfulness. He little knew that unfaithfulness was only one of his failings, and not the worst.
He was responsible for Dunstan's conduct on the occasion of King Edwy's coronation, though it is not known how far he sanctioned the cruelties subsequently practised on Elgiva. Odo reconstructed and enlarged the cathedral. His immediate successor was #Elsi#, Bishop of Winchester, but this archbishop died while on his way to Rome to receive his pall from the Pope.
The day wore away, night drew on; he laid himself down and tried to sleep, when he heard voices conversing outside, and recognised Edwy's tones; immediately after the prince entered. "What a shame, Elfric," he said, "to make you a prisoner like this, and to send you away for they say you are to go tomorrow you shall not be forgotten if ever I become king, and I don't think it will be long first.
I have made all the arrangements; we shall have such a night at the lady Ethelgiva's." "How is the fair Elgiva?" It was now Edwy's turn to blush and look confused. "I wish I had the power of teasing you, Elfric. But if you have a secret you keep it close. Remember old Dunstan vanishes on the fifteenth, and the same evening, oh, won't it be joyful? But I am tired of work.
I fear you may have done great harm to England in the person of her future king, but God forgive you in that case." Elfric felt the injustice of the last accusation; he coloured, and an indignant denial had almost risen to his lips, but he repressed it for Edwy's sake faithful, even in his vice, to his friend.
One evening, when a banquet was given him in honor of his coronation, the king excused himself when the speeches got rather corky, and went into the sitting-room to have a chat with his wife, Elgiva, of whom he was very fond, and her mother. St. Dunstan, who had still to make a speech on Foreign Missions with a yard or so of statistics, insisted on Edwy's return. An open outbreak was the result.
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