they have
sometimes been since) to come to England on visits to the English court.

When Athelstan died, at forty-seven years old, his brother EDMUND, who
was only eighteen, became king. He was the first of six boy-kings, as
you will presently know.

They called him the Magnificent, because he showed a taste for
improvement and refinement. But he was beset by the Danes, and had a
short and troubled reign, which came to a troubled end. One night, when
he was feasting in his hall, and had eaten much and drunk deep, he saw,
among the company, a noted robber named LEOF, who had been banished from
England. Made very angry by the boldness of this man, the King turned to
his cup-bearer, and said, 'There is a robber sitting at the table yonder,
who, for his crimes, is an outlaw in the land--a hunted wolf, whose life
any man may take, at any time. Command that robber to depart!' 'I will
not depart!' said Leof. 'No?' cried the King. 'No, by the Lord!' said
Leof. Upon that the King rose from his seat, and, making passionately at
the robber, and seizing him by his long hair, tried to throw him down.
But the robber had a dagger underneath his cloak, and, in the scuffle,
stabbed the King to death. That done, he set his back against the wall,
and fought so desperately, that although he was soon cut to pieces by the
King's armed men, and the wall and pavement were splashed with his blood,
yet it was not before he had killed and wounded many of them. You may
imagine what rough lives the kings of those times led, when one of them
could struggle, half drunk, with a public robber in his own dining-hall,
and be stabbed in presence of the company who ate and drank with him.

Then succeeded the boy-king EDRED, who was weak and sickly in body, but
of a strong mind. And his armies fought the Northmen, the Danes, and
Norwegians, or the Sea-Kings, as they were called, and beat them for the
time. And, in nine years, Edred died, and passed away.

Then came the boy-king EDWY, fifteen years of age; but the real king, who
had the real power, was a monk named DUNSTAN--a clever priest, a little
mad, and not a little proud and cruel.

Dunstan was then Abbot of Glastonbury Abbey, whither the body of King
Edmund the Magnificent was carried, to be buried. While yet a boy, he
had got out of his bed one night (being then in a fever), and walked
about Glastonbury Church when it was under repair; and, because he did
not tumble off some scaffol