t know us?"

"Indeed I do; but do you believe me guilty, nay, even capable of--"

He could add no more, but they saw that if they doubted they would
hear no more from him--that he scorned self-defence.

"Guilty!--no, God forbid! we alone in the council asserted your
complete innocence."

"I thank you; you have taken away the bitterness of death--and
Ethelgiva?"

"Would die for her conviction of your truth."

"Thank God!" he said fervently, his face brightening at once; tears,
indeed, rolled down his cheeks, but they seemed rather of gratitude
than grief.

"We wanted to see, my son, whether you could aid us in discovering the
real assassin--whether you can in any way account for his possession
of your dagger, for your door being still, as you asserted, fast
inside."

"I knew it made against me, but I couldn't lie, it was fast inside."

"Then how could the foe have gained admittance?"

"I could not discover that, but I think there must have been some
secret door. Edric had perhaps lived in the Place before; he once
resided in Oxenford."

"He did, and in that very house," said Herstan. "I was here at the
time when he assassinated Sigeferth and Morcar in the banqueting
hall."

"That may supply a clue, I know no other possible one."

"But how, then, did he get your dagger?"

"I think our wine was drugged the night before, or I should not have
slept so soundly. I remember with what difficulty I seemed to throw
off a kind of nightmare which oppressed me, and to come to myself."

"Then I will get a carpenter and search the wainscoting; and I will
see whether I can learn anything about the wine," said Elfwyn.

"Do so cautiously, my father, very cautiously, for if Edric suspects
you are on his track, he will plot against your life too, and
Ethelgiva will have no protector.

"Oh, this was to have been my wedding day, my wedding day!" and he
clasped his hands in agony; then the thought of his master--his slain
lord--returned, and he cried, "O Edmund! my master, my dear master, so
good, so gentle, yet so brave; who else could slay him? what fiend
else than Edric, the murderer Edric? That they should think I, or any
one else than Edric, could have done such a deed, such an evil deed!"

Elfwyn and Herstan both left the scene, the more convinced of Alfgar's
innocence, but yet the more puzzled to convey their impression to
others.

Meanwhile the arrangements for Edmund's burial were made. It was
decided, accord