t his provoking such dangerous enemies. On the day of his
coronation, his nobility were assembled in a great hall, and were
indulging themselves in that riot and disorder, which, from the example
of their German ancestors, had become habitual to the English;[*] when
Edwy, attracted by softer pleasures, retired into the queen's apartment,
and in that privacy gave reins to his fondness towards his wife, which
was only moderately checked by the presence of her mother. Dunstan
conjectured the reason of the king's retreat; and, carrying along with
him Odo, archbishop of Canterbury, over whom he had gained an absolute
ascendant, he burst into the apartment, upbraided Edwy with his
lasciviousness, probably bestowed on the queen the most opprobrious
epithet that can be applied to her sex, and tearing him from her arms,
pushed him back, in a disgraceful manner, into the banquet of the
nobles.[**] Edwy, though young, and opposed by the prejudices of the
people, found an opportunity of taking revenge for this public insult.
He questioned Dunstan concerning the administration of the treasury
during the reign of his predecessor;[***] and when that minister refused
to give any account of money expended, as he affirmed, by orders of the
late king, he accused him of malversation in his office, and banished
him the kingdom. But Dunstan's cabal was not inactive during his
absence: they filled the public with high panegyrics on his sanctity:
they exclaimed against the impiety of the king and queen; and having
poisoned the minds of the people by these declamations, they proceeded
to still more outrageous acts of violence against the royal authority.
Archbishop Odo sent into the palace a party of soldiers, who seized
the queen; and having burned her face with a rod-hot iron, in order to
destroy that fatal beauty which had seduced Edwy, they carried her by
force into Ireland, there to remain in perpetual exile.[****] Edwy,
finding it in vain to resist, was obliged to consent to his divorce,
which was pronounced by Odo;[*****] and a catastrophe still more dismal
awaited the unhappy Elgiva. That amiable princess being cured of her
wounds, and having even obliterated the scars with which Odo had hoped
to deface her beauty, returned into England, and was flying to the
embraces of the king, whom she still regarded as her husband; when she
fell into the hands of a party whom the primate had sent to intercept
her. Nothing but her death could now give