vil
convulsions which were likely to ensue. On this subject Cedric was all
animation. The restoration of the independence of his race was the idol
of his heart, to which he had willingly sacrificed domestic happiness
and the interests of his own son. But, in order to achieve this great
revolution in favour of the native English, it was necessary that they
should be united among themselves, and act under an acknowledged head.
The necessity of choosing their chief from the Saxon blood-royal was not
only evident in itself, but had been made a solemn condition by those
whom Cedric had intrusted with his secret plans and hopes. Athelstane
had this quality at least; and though he had few mental accomplishments
or talents to recommend him as a leader, he had still a goodly person,
was no coward, had been accustomed to martial exercises, and seemed
willing to defer to the advice of counsellors more wise than himself.
Above all, he was known to be liberal and hospitable, and believed to be
good-natured. But whatever pretensions Athelstane had to be considered
as head of the Saxon confederacy, many of that nation were disposed
to prefer to the title of the Lady Rowena, who drew her descent from
Alfred, and whose father having been a chief renowned for wisdom,
courage, and generosity, his memory was highly honoured by his oppressed
countrymen.

It would have been no difficult thing for Cedric, had he been so
disposed, to have placed himself at the head of a third party, as
formidable at least as any of the others. To counterbalance their royal
descent, he had courage, activity, energy, and, above all, that devoted
attachment to the cause which had procured him the epithet of The Saxon,
and his birth was inferior to none, excepting only that of Athelstane
and his ward. These qualities, however, were unalloyed by the slightest
shade of selfishness; and, instead of dividing yet farther his weakened
nation by forming a faction of his own, it was a leading part of
Cedric's plan to extinguish that which already existed, by promoting a
marriage betwixt Rowena and Athelstane. An obstacle occurred to this his
favourite project, in the mutual attachment of his ward and his son and
hence the original cause of the banishment of Wilfred from the house of
his father.

This stern measure Cedric had adopted, in hopes that, during Wilfred's
absence, Rowena might relinquish her preference, but in this hope he was
disappointed; a disappointment wh