he son of
Ethelred by his first wife, were the chief mourners, nay, the only
real ones. Most men felt as when a cloud passes away. The sad
procession passed through the streets, the people flocked into the
church, and in the presence of all the "wise men" of London, they
solemnly committed the frail tabernacle in which the living spirit had
sinned and suffered to the parent earth, where the rush and roar of a
mighty city should ever peal around it.

A few days later the archbishop was called upon to perform a very
different ceremony, the coronation of King Edmund, which also took
place in St. Paul's Cathedral, amidst tears of joy, and cries which
even the sanctity of the place could not wholly restrain, "God bless
King Edmund!" The solemn oath of fidelity was administered, and when
all was over, with mingled tears and acclamations, those who had met
to bury the late king greeted with joy his son and successor.

It yet remained to be seen whether the choice of the realm would
ratify this decisive step on the part of the citizens of London.

Emma, the queen dowager, was deeply mortified, even while she
confessed the heritage was hardly worth having. Still her boy Alfred
seemed slighted by the choice, and she left England at once, with
Alfred and Edward, for Normandy, while Elgitha departed secretly from
London to join her husband Edric, and tell him all that had been done.

Edmund delayed his journey into Wessex until he had duly provided for
the defence of the capital, and had personally examined all the
defences with a warrior's eye. At length the messengers who watched
the Danish fleet announced its arrival at Greenwich, and that bands of
warriors, numerous as locusts, were issuing thence, and advancing upon
London.

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.

Their intended route led them, in the first instance, to Dorchester,
where a large force from Mercia, including most of the men whom Edmund
had so long disciplined himself, and who were under the temporary
charge of Hermann, were to meet him. However, it was late before their
final arrangements could be made, and the sun had already set when the
citizens accompanied them to the Ludgate, and bade th