ring audience, who listened enraptured to his account of the
holiness of Dunstan and the cruelty of his foes. But it will easily be
imagined that he made no allusion to his rencontre with Elfric; and
Oswy, instructed by his young master, was equally silent.

He had quite made up his mind to persevere in this course: it could do
no good to tell father or mother how grievously Elfric had fallen, and
how nearly he had been the involuntary instrument of his brother's death.

"God can change his heart," said Alfred to himself, "and bring him home
like the prodigal son about whom Father Cuthbert talks so often."

So he prayed earnestly every day for his brother, and many a
supplication on his behalf arose from the altar of St. Wilfred. Time
will show whether they were lost.

CHAPTER XIV. EDWY AND ELGIVA.

Edwy, King of England, and Elgiva, his queen, gave a great feast at
their royal palace in London, a month after the events recorded in our
last chapter; and a numerous company had assembled to do honour to their
hospitality. Yet the company was very different from that which had
assembled round the same hospitable board in the days of King Edred.
First, the Churchmen were conspicuous by their absence; and secondly,
all the old grey-headed counsellors, who had been the pride and ornament
of the reigns of Edmund and Edred, were not seen; for, after the rumour
of their marriage had reached Odo, he had pronounced the sentence of the
lesser excommunication upon them, severing them from the sacraments; and
this was felt by the old counsellors of Edred to be a most serious
stigma, yet one which they could not call undeserved: hence they
deserted the court.

In their place were the young and giddy, the headstrong sons of wiser
fathers, the spendthrifts, the young fops of the period, those who went
in for a fast life, to use a modern phrase--who spent the night, if
not the day, over the wine cup, and consumed their substance in riotous
living--such were they who gathered around Edwy the Fair and the yet
fairer Elgiva.

And truly king and queen more beautiful in person had never sat upon a
throne; and it was difficult to look upon them and feel aught but
admiration, save when one knew all their history, and then pity and
sorrow might supply the place of admiration, at least with the sober minded.

Fish, flesh, and fowl; nought was wanting. The earth the air, and the
water, all yielded their tribute; for was it not the an