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"And now," the king said, "since the audience is over, and none other comes before us with petitions, we will retire to our private apartments, and there my brother Alfred will present you to the fair Elswitha, his wife." The room into which Egbert and Edmund followed the king and his brother was spacious and lofty.
Elswitha, if you do not want the mate to that, fetch the salve out of my chest." In an instant all was confusion; under cover of it the fat monk returned to his cup and the young master walked quietly to the door. Homesick and heartsick, the waif in the page's dress was left facing the unfriendly glances.
In 868 Alfred married Elswitha, the daughter of Ethelred Mucil of Mercia. Meanwhile the Danes had resumed their predatory excursions, and in the winter of 870-871 Ethelred accompanied by Alfred attacked them at Reading, but after an initial victory was repulsed.
Elswitha was sitting in a large gilded chair by the great fire which was blazing on the hearth. Prince Alfred presented Edmund and Egbert to her. Elswitha was well acquainted with the Ealdorman Eldred, as his lands lay on the very border of her native Mercia, and she received the lad and his kinsman with great kindness. In a short time they took their places at table.
Last year Alfred, the youngest brother, married Elswitha, the daughter of Ethelred Mucil, Earl of the Gaini, in Lincolnshire, whose mother was one of the royal family of Mercia. "It was but a short time after the marriage that the Danes poured into Mercia from the north. Messengers were sent to ask the assistance of the West Saxons.
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