ing to the wish he had more than once expressed, that
he should rest beneath the shadow of a shrine he had loved well; and
on the second day after his death the mournful procession left
Oxenford for Glastonbury, followed by the tears and prayers of the
citizens. There, after a long and toilsome winter journey, the funeral
cortege arrived, and was joined by his wife Elgitha, his sons Edmund
and Edward. They laid him to rest by the side of his grandfather,
Edgar "the Magnanimous," whose days of peace and prosperity all
England loved to remember. There, amidst the people of Wessex who had
rallied so often to his war cry, all that was mortal of the Ironside
reposed.

Meanwhile the crafty Edric, who excused himself from attendance on the
solemnities, tarried at Oxenford, and with him tarried also Elfwyn,
Herstan, and the other friends of the unfortunate prisoner, to secure,
as they were able, that justice should be rendered him.

A special court of justice was speedily organised, wherein Edric
presided as ealdorman of Mercia, for Oxenford properly was a Mercian
city, although, lying on the debateable land, it was frequently
claimed by Wessex as the border land changed its boundaries.

The court was composed of wise and aged men, ealdormen, thanes, and
burgesses had places, and the bishop of Dorchester sat by Edric as
assessor.

The court was opened, and the vacant places in the room were occupied
at once by the crowd who were fortunate enough to gain entrance. The
general feeling was strong against the prisoner, the more so because
he had been loved and trusted by Edmund, so that ingratitude added to
the magnitude of his crime in their eyes.

But amongst those who stood nearest to the place he must occupy were
his betrothed, her mother, Bertha, and young Hermann, who had already
got into several quarrels through his fierce espousing of the cause of
the accused.

He entered at last under a guard, calm and dignified, in spite of his
suffering. He met the gaze of the multitude without flinching, and his
general demeanour impressed many in his favour. Compurgators, or men
to swear that they believed him innocent, a kind of evidence fully
recognised by the Saxon law, were not wanting; but they consisted
chiefly of his old companions in arms and his friends from Aescendune.
In a lighter accusation, his innocence might have been established by
this primitive mode of evidence, but the case was too serious; the
accusation bei