express to you, my old friend and brother," he said, "the
great pain with which I sent your poor boy Elfric home, but it was a
necessity."

"Sent him home?" said Ella.

"Yes, at the time our lamented Edred died."

"Sent him home!" repeated Ella, in such undisguised amazement that
Dunstan soon perceived something was amiss, and in a few short minutes
became possessed of the whole facts, while Ella learnt his son's disgrace.

They conferred long and earnestly. The father's heart was sorely
wounded, but he could not think that Elfric would resist his commands,
and he promised to take him back at once to Aescendune, where he hoped
all would soon be well--"soon, very soon," he said falteringly.

So the old thane went to his lodgings, hard by the palace, where he
awaited his son.

Late in the evening Elfric arrived, his countenance flushed with wine:
he had been seeking courage for the part he had to play in the wine cup.

Long and painful, most painful, was the interview that followed.
Hardened in his rebellion, the unhappy Elfric defied his father's
authority and justified his sin, flatly refusing to return home, in
which he pretended to be justified by "the duty a subject owed to his
sovereign."

Thus roused to energy, Ella solemnly adjured his boy to remember the
story of his uncle Oswald, and the sad fate he had met with. It was very
seldom indeed that Ella alluded to his unhappy brother, the story was
too painful; but now that Elfric seemed to be commencing a similar
course of disobedience, the example of the miserable outlaw came too
forcibly to his mind to be altogether suppressed.

"Beware, my son," added Ella, "lest the curse which fell upon Oswald
fall upon you, and your younger brother succeed to your inheritance."

"It is not a large one," said Elfric, "and in that case, the king whom I
serve will find me a better one."

"Is it not written, 'Put not your trust in princes?' O my son, my son;
you will bring my grey hairs with sorrow to the grave!"

It was of no avail. The old thane arose in the morning with the
intention of taking Elfric home even by force, such force as Dunstan had
used, if necessary, but found that the youth had disappeared in the
night; neither could he learn what had become of him, but he shrewdly
guessed that the young king could have told him.

Broken-hearted by his son's cruel desertion, the thane of Aescendune
returned home alone.

CHAPTER IX. GLASTONBURY ABBEY.

R