rom whose society there was
no escape--with whom he had to share not only the very few hours
allotted to study, but those of recreation also. Study, indeed,
meant chiefly the use and practice of warlike weapons, the learning
of the technical terms of chivalry, and the acquirement, it may be,
of sufficient letters to spell through a challenge.

So thoroughly was war the Norman instinct, that every occupation of
life was more or less connected with it; and the only recreation
which varied the hours of fencing, jousting, tilting, etc., was the
kindred excitement of the chase, pursued with the greatest avidity
amongst the wooded hills around Aescendune.

Wilfred was not backward either in mimic war or in love of the
chase; but he was growing taciturn and sullen, scarcely ever
speaking, save when spoken to, and even in the latter case he
generally replied with brief and curt words.

Hence it may be easily guessed that he was not popular.

For this he cared little; all his leisure was spent by the bedside
of his dying mother, whom he felt he was so soon about to lose, and
when with her and his sister Edith he felt that home--the home of
his happy childhood--was not yet a mere remembrance of the vanished
past.

But the sad day, so long foreseen, at length arrived.

She was in her chamber, with her son and daughter--the three were
together for the last time on earth. They had been talking of the
happy days when the husband and father was yet alive, before the
fatal day of Senlac. Alone with her children, she felt far more at
peace than usual; it seemed, she said, like the dear old times.

But this evening the presentiment of the coming end seemed strong
upon her, and she spoke to her darling boy of the duties which
would devolve upon him when she was gone, bidding him be obedient
and loyal to his Norman stepfather, that he might have the more
power to protect the poor oppressed people of Aescendune, and to
shield his dear sister from harm in a world of wrong and violence.
She bade him look forward to a better world, where parents and
children, separated by death, would meet together never to part,
and to live as a Christian man should, that he might not lose so
dear a hope. The sun was slowly sinking in the west, amidst
gorgeous clouds, and she gazed into the glowing depths, as if she
saw the gate of Paradise therein.

It was but a few moments, while they yet lingered in conversation,
that her children observed a dea