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"Redwald, you understand these things; can you open the letter without breaking the seal?" "There is no need of that," replied the captain of the hus-carles, "I can easily seal it again; see, there is the signet, and here the wax."
These had been asides, while all the company were listening to the gleeman; but now Edwy threw himself heart and soul into the current conversation, and all went merry as a marriage peal, until the ceremoniarius for Edwy loved formality in some things threw open the folding doors and announced the captain of the hus-carles, and Elfric of Aescendune.
He scarcely slept at all, and early in the morning he rose to seek an interview with Edwy, when he found that he was a prisoner. One of the hus-carles posted at his door forbade all communication.
Yes, I was Edmund's enemy once; but perhaps you remember yesterday and the early mass at St. Frideswide's." "We do, we do," cried all but Elfwyn and Herstan; but they were utterly outvoted, and the order was given to the captain of the hus-carles to arrest Alfgar.
The entrenchment was dug, the mound thrown up, the sentinels posted, and all in so short a space of time that to the uninitiated in the art of war, it would have seemed little short of miraculous; but the discipline of the Danes, who owed their success generally to the skill with which they fortified their camps, had been partially inherited by their adversaries, and the hus-carles were not even all English: there were many Danes amongst them.
The outer portal stood open, but sentinels of the hus-carles were posted thereat, who at once came forward as Edmund paused at the gate. He dismounted, saying, "Alfgar, follow me;" and commended his troops to the hospitality of the citizens, bidding them to reassemble before St. Paul's by eight of the morning.
His nose was slightly aquiline, his eyes hid beneath bushy eyebrows, while his massive jaw denoted energy of character energy which one instinctively felt was quite as likely to be exerted for evil as for good. He was captain of the hus-carles, and had but recently entered the royal service. Few knew his lineage.
May a plain soldier ask you now why you seek King Edgar?" "Because," said Alfred, "my father has been murdered, and my brother made a prisoner by Redwald, the captain of King Edwy's hus-carles, who holds our house, and has driven us all out." "Your father murdered! Your family expelled! Your brother a prisoner! These are strange news."
May God mercifully continue peace in our days. "Stablish the thing, O God, that thou hast wrought in us." Christmas, 1017. Strange news greet our festival. Edric Streorn has gone suddenly, unhouselled, unanointed, unabsolved, to his great account. Hermann, who is now an officer in the royal hus-carles, has arrived from court, and from him we have learnt all particulars.
"They shall be the best behaved warriors you have ever seen, my own hus-carles men who go to mass every morning, and shrift every week," added the deceitful prince; "at least," he added, as he saw the look of incredulity Ella could not suppress, "some of them do, I can't say how many."
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