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Updated: June 22, 2025
First and foremost was the king of Southern England, the valiant Ironside, and his attendant and friend Alfgar; Elfwyn and Father Cuthbert from Aescendune, with the Lady Hilda and Ethelgiva; Herstan, his wife Bertha, and son Hermann, from Clifton, with his sisters; and Ethelm, the new bishop of Dorchester, the successor of the martyred Ednoth.
He found it an utter wilderness, not a house had been left standing; Etienne had wished to abolish the very remembrance of the scenes in which, as his conscience told him, he had acted so ill a part, and when he had succeeded in persuading the English to trust him, and return to Aescendune, he had fired the little hamlet and reduced it to ashes.
"And thou blushest not to own it?" "Why should I? Norman and English have long been peacefully united on my father's lands, and we know no distinction." "Such, I have heard, is not yet everywhere the case in thine island; but thou hast not told me thy name." "Edward of Aescendune, son of Etienne, lord of Aescendune in England, and Malville in Normandy."
"My liege, I saw him myself; I penetrated their fastnesses in the forest, and but narrowly escaped with life." "And saw Wilfred of Aescendune?" "Distinctly, my liege, almost face to face, in command of the rebels." "And then, what happened after the death of thy father?"
One hope Alfgar had, and that not a faint one: he knew that the two theows had escaped unnoticed, and that they would give warning in time for either defence or escape; their strength at Aescendune was but slight for the former, all the able-bodied men were absent at the seat of war.
So Norman and Englishman were happily united at Aescendune, and in spite of some little difficulties, arising from the airs the conquerors could not help giving themselves, became more like one people daily; and in a few years, so many followed their lord's example, and intermarried with the English, captivated by the beauty of the Anglo-Saxon maidens, that distinction of race became speedily abolished, and hence Aescendune was perhaps the happiest village in the distracted island.
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.
On his right sat Haga, the oldest retainer of his house, a man who at the beginning of the century had actually fought with Alfgar against the Danes; on his left, Boom, the ancient forester of the Aescendune woods as moderns would say, "the head keeper."
Bertric was now about sixteen a handsome, attractive boy, full of life and fire, yet still possessing that devotion which Father Cuthbert had remarked in him as a boy of twelve. As the heir to the lands of Aescendune, and the only son, he would have been in much danger of being spoiled had he been less genuine and manly than he was.
I was seated by his couch when he seemed to awake out of sleep, and I saw his bright dark eyes fixed inquiringly on me. "Where am I?" he inquired. "In the Hall of Aescendune; you have been very ill here." "Indeed! I have had such dreadful dreams! but were they all dreams?" "Your mind has been wandering for days, my dear son. You must not talk too much." He was silent, but evidently pondered more.
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