t was slowly rising, lay beyond, and
supplied water to a moat which surrounded the edifice, for in those
troublous times few country dwellings lacked such necessary protection.
The memory of the Danish invasions was too recent; the marauders of
either nation still lurked in the far recesses of the forest, and
plundered the Saxon inhabitant or the Danish settler indiscriminately,
as occasion served.

On the inner side of the moat a strong palisade of timber completed the
defence. One portal, opening upon a drawbridge, formed the sole apparent
means of ingress or egress.

Passing the drawbridge unquestioned, the boys entered the courtyard,
around which the chief apartments were grouped. Before them a flight of
stone steps led to the great hall where all the members of the community
took their meals in common, and where, around the great fire, they wiled
away the slow hours of a winter evening.

On each side of the great hall stood the bowers, as the small
dormitories were called, furnished very simply for the use of the higher
domestics with small round tables, common stools, and beds in recesses
like boxes or cupboards. Such were commonly the only sleeping chambers,
but at Aescendune, as generally in the halls of the rich, a wide
staircase conducted to a gallery above, from each side of which opened
sleeping and sitting apartments allotted to the use of the family. It
was only in the houses of the wealthy that such an upper floor was found.

On the right hand, as they entered the courtyard, stood the private
chapel of the household, where mass was said by the chaplain, to whom
allusion has been already made, as the first duty of the day, and where
each night generally saw the household again assembled for compline or
evening prayers.[iii] On the left hand were domestic offices.

Upon the steps of his hall stood Ella, the Thane of Aescendune, the
representative of a long line of warlike ancestors, who had occupied the
soil since the Saxon conquest of Mercia.

He was clad in a woollen tunic reaching to the knee, over which a cloak
fastened by a clasp of gold was loosely thrown; and his feet were clad
in black pointed boots, while strips of painted leather were wound over
red stockings from the knee to the ankle.

"You are late, my sons," he said, "and I perceive you have brought us a
visitor. He is welcome."

"Father," said Elfric, in a voice somewhat expressive of awe, "it is
Prince Edwy!"

The thane had in his