CHAPTER IV.

Prince Edwin was not greatly alarmed, for he thought the king, his
brother, was only going to banish him to some foreign country, where he
fondly thought that Wilfrid and himself might live together very
happily. But when they were out of sight of land, and the moon had
risen over a wild waste of stormy billows, the king had both the
prisoners brought upon deck, and he then ordered the captain to put
them into a small boat and set them adrift at the mercy of the winds
and waves.

It was to no purpose that the wretched Edwin threw himself at his
brother's feet, and entreated for mercy. Athelstane only replied, "You
tried to persuade my faithful cup-bearer to take my life--your own
life, therefore, is forfeited; but, as you are the son of my royal
father, I will not shed your blood upon the scaffold. I commit you and
your guilty companion, the son of the traitor Cendric, to the mercy of
God, who can and will preserve the innocent if it be his good pleasure
so to do."

"And to His mercy, not thine, O king! do I, in full confidence of
innocence, commend both myself and my unfortunate master," said
Wilfrid, as the seamen hurried him, with the weeping Atheling, over the
side of the vessel into the little boat that lay tossing and rocking
among the tempestuous billows.

When the unhappy youths found themselves alone, without sails or
rudder, on the pathless ocean, they sank into each other's arms and
wept long and passionately.

At length Wilfrid lifted up his voice and heart in fervent prayer to
that Almighty and merciful God, who had delivered Daniel from the
lions' den, and preserved his faithful servants, Meshach, Shadrach and
Abednego, unharmed in the fiery furnace. Prince Edwin, on the
contrary, gave himself up to despair, and when he saw the king's ship
spreading her canvas to the gale, and fast receding from his sight, he
uttered a cry that was heard above the uproar of the winds and waves.
Starting up in the boat, and extending his arms toward the disappearing
vessel, he unwittingly lost his balance, and was in a moment ingulfed
in the stormy billows.

We may imagine the anguish and terror of Wilfrid on witnessing the sad
fate of his young lord, which he had no power to prevent. Thoughts of
his widowed mother's grief for himself, too, came over his mind and
filled his eyes with tears, for her, as well as for his ill-fated lord.
For himself, however, he felt no fears, even in this dreadfu