to his mother's instructions,
Alfred took with him quite a troop of Norman soldiers. He crossed the
Channel in safety, and advanced across the country some distance toward
London. Harold sent out a force to intercept him. He was surrounded, and
he himself and all his followers were taken prisoners. He was sentenced
to lose his eyes, and he died in a few days after the execution of this
terrible sentence, from the mingled effects of fever and of mental
anguish and despair. Emma fled to Flanders.

Finally Harold died, and Hardicanute succeeded him. In a short time
Hardicanute died, leaving no heirs, and now, of course, there was no one
left[I] to compete with Emma's oldest son Edward, who had remained all
this time quietly in Normandy. He was accordingly proclaimed king. This
was in 1041. He reigned for twenty years, having commenced his reign
about the time that William the Conqueror was established in the
possession of his dominions as Duke of Normandy. Edward had known
William intimately during his long residence in Normandy, and William
came to visit him in England in the course of his reign. William, in
fact, considered himself as Edward's heir; for as Edward, though
married, had no children, the dukes of the Norman line were his nearest
relatives. He obtained, he said, a promise from Edward that Edward would
sanction and confirm his claim to the English crown, in the event of his
decease, by bequeathing it to William in his will.

[Footnote I: The children of Ethelred's oldest son, Edmund, were in
Hungary at this time, and seem to have been wellnigh forgotten.]

Emma was now advanced in years. The ambition which had been the ruling
principle of her life would seem to have been well satisfied, so far as
it is possible to satisfy ambition, for she had had two husbands and two
sons, all kings of England. But as she advanced toward the close of her
career, she found herself wretched and miserable. Her son Edward could
not forgive her for her abandonment of himself and his brother, to
marry a man who was their own and their father's bitterest enemy. She
had made a formal treaty in her marriage covenant to exclude them from
the throne. She had treated them with neglect during all the time of
Canute's reign, while she was living with him in London in power and
splendor. Edward accused her, also, of having connived at his brother
Alfred's death. The story is, that he caused her to be tried on this
charge by the ordeal of