weapon yet remained {xviii}.

Here his affliction and grief overpowered him; he threw himself upon
the body from which he had withdrawn the weapon; he kissed the now
cold lips; he cried, half distracted, "O Edmund, my lord, speak!"

Alas! those lips were never to speak again while time lasted. At
length the first deep emotion passed away, and left the unhappy Alfgar
comparatively master of himself, whereupon he left the chamber, and
cried aloud for help.

It was his cry which the ladies heard in their distant bower.

The piercing cry, "Help! Edmund, the king, is slain!" roused the
household--Elfwyn, Herstan, Hermann, the ladies, agitated beyond
measure; the household guard; and, last of all, Edric.

They beheld Alfgar in his night dress, all bloody, holding a dagger in
his hand, and with his face blanched to a death-like paleness,
uttering cry upon cry.

"Help! Edmund, the king, is slain!"

They (the men) rushed to the chamber, and, passing through Alfgar's
little room, beheld, by the light of many torches, Edmund bathed in
his own blood, which still dripped with monotonous but terrible sound
on the floor.

Edric entered, and with woe, real or affected (no one could tell),
painted in his face, approached the body; and Elfwyn and Herstan
beheld, or thought they beheld, a prodigy: they thought they saw the
eyes open, and regard Edric, and that they saw the blood well up in
the wound. But doubtless this was fancy.

"One thing we all must do," said Edric; "we must all help to find the
murderer. The first step to that effect will be to note all present
appearances. First, where is the weapon?"

"Here," said Alfgar, extending it.

"Why, Alfgar, it is your own dagger," said Elfwyn; "one which he gave
you himself."

Alfgar uttered a plaintive and pitiful cry.

Edric possessed himself of the blood-stained weapon.

"Alfgar," said he, "you must have slept soundly. Tell us what you
heard and saw."

He briefly related the particulars with which the reader is
acquainted.

"But how could they enter? Was your door unfastened?"

"No; it was bolted on the inside, even as I left it last night."

"Bolted on the inside! then they must have entered through the
window," said Edric, noting the words.

"Impossible," said both the thanes; "they are barred, both of
them--heavily barred."

"We can no longer assist our departed lord save by our prayers," said
Edric. "God be thanked, he died friends with me. I shall value