d the unhappy prince's life.
Neither Emma nor Godwin did any thing to save him. It was wise policy,
no doubt, in Emma to disavow all connection with her son's unfortunate
attempt, now that it had failed; and ambitious queens have to follow
the dictates of policy instead of obeying such impulses as maternal
love. She was, however, secretly indignant at the cruel fate which her
son had endured, and she considered Godwin as having betrayed him.

After this dreadful disappointment, Emma was not likely to make any
farther attempts to place either of her sons upon the throne; but
Harold seems to have distrusted her, for he banished her from the
realm. She had still her Saxon son in Normandy, Alfred's brother
Edward, and her Danish son in Denmark. She went to Flanders, and there
sent to Hardicanute, urging him by the most earnest importunities to
come to England and assert his claims to the crown. He was doubly
bound to do it now, she said, as the blood of his murdered brother
called for retribution, and he could have no honorable rest or peace
until he had avenged it.

There was no occasion, however, for Hardicanute to attempt force
for the recovery of his kingdom, for not many months after these
transactions Harold died, and then the country seemed generally to
acquiesce in Hardicanute's accession. The Anglo-Saxons, discouraged
perhaps by the discomfiture of their cause in the person of Alfred,
made no attempt to rise. Hardicanute came accordingly and assumed the
throne. But, though he had not courage and energy enough to encounter
his rival Harold during his lifetime, he made what amends he could by
offering base indignities to his body after he was laid in the
grave. His first public act after his accession was to have the body
disinterred, and, after cutting off the head, he threw the mangled
remains into the Thames. The Danish fishermen in the river found them,
and buried them again in a private sepulcher in London, with such
concealed marks of respect and honor as it was in their power to
bestow.

Hardicanute also instituted legal proceedings to inquire into the
death of Alfred. He charged the Saxons with having betrayed him,
especially those who were rich enough to pay the fines by which, in
those days, it was very customary for criminals to atone for their
crimes. Godwin himself was brought before the tribunal, and charged
with being accessory to Alfred's death. Godwin positively asserted his
innocence, and brough