rothers. He was strongly inclined
to kill EDMUND and EDWARD, two children, sons of poor Ironside; but,
being afraid to do so in England, he sent them over to the King of
Sweden, with a request that the King would be so good as 'dispose of
them.' If the King of Sweden had been like many, many other men of that
day, he would have had their innocent throats cut; but he was a kind man,
and brought them up tenderly.

Normandy ran much in Canute's mind. In Normandy were the two children of
the late king--EDWARD and ALFRED by name; and their uncle the Duke might
one day claim the crown for them. But the Duke showed so little
inclination to do so now, that he proposed to Canute to marry his sister,
the widow of The Unready; who, being but a showy flower, and caring for
nothing so much as becoming a queen again, left her children and was
wedded to him.

Successful and triumphant, assisted by the valour of the English in his
foreign wars, and with little strife to trouble him at home, Canute had a
prosperous reign, and made many improvements. He was a poet and a
musician. He grew sorry, as he grew older, for the blood he had shed at
first; and went to Rome in a Pilgrim's dress, by way of washing it out.
He gave a great deal of money to foreigners on his journey; but he took
it from the English before he started. On the whole, however, he
certainly became a far better man when he had no opposition to contend
with, and was as great a King as England had known for some time.

The old writers of history relate how that Canute was one day disgusted
with his courtiers for their flattery, and how he caused his chair to be
set on the sea-shore, and feigned to command the tide as it came up not
to wet the edge of his robe, for the land was his; how the tide came up,
of course, without regarding him; and how he then turned to his
flatterers, and rebuked them, saying, what was the might of any earthly
king, to the might of the Creator, who could say unto the sea, 'Thus far
shalt thou go, and no farther!' We may learn from this, I think, that a
little sense will go a long way in a king; and that courtiers are not
easily cured of flattery, nor kings of a liking for it. If the courtiers
of Canute had not known, long before, that the King was fond of flattery,
they would have known better than to offer it in such large doses. And
if they had not known that he was vain of this speech (anything but a
wonderful speech it seems to me, i