earlier days been at court, and had known the
murdered Edmund, the royal father of his guest, intimately. It was not
without emotion, therefore, that he welcomed the son to his home, and
saluted him with that manly yet reverential homage their relative
positions required of him.

"Welcome, thrice welcome, my prince," he said, "to these humble halls."
He added, with some emotion, "I could think the royal Edmund stood
before me, as I knew him while yet myself a youth."

The domestics, who had assembled, gazed upon their visitor with country
curiosity, yet were not wanting in rude but expressive courtesy; and
soon he was conducted to the best chamber the house afforded, where
change of raiment and every comfort within the reach of his host was
provided, while the cooks were charged to make sumptuous additions to
the approaching supper.

CHAPTER II. THE HOUSE OF AESCENDUNE.

The earlier fortunes of the house of Aescendune must here obtrude
themselves upon the notice of the reader, in order that he may more
easily comprehend the subsequent pages of our veritable history.

Sebbald, the remote ancestor of the family, was amongst the earliest
Saxon conquerors of Mercia. He fell in battle with the Britons, or
Welshmen as our ancestors called them, leaving sons valiant as their
sire, to whom were given the fertile lands lying between the river Avon
and the mighty midland forests, to which they gave the name "Aescendune."

They had held their own for three hundred years with varying fortunes;
once or twice home and hearth were desolated by the fierce tide of
Danish invasion, but the wars subsided, and the old family resumed its
position, amidst the joy of their dependants and serfs, to whom they
were endeared by a thousand memories of past benefits.

But a generation only had passed since the shadow of a great woe fell on
the family of Aescendune.

Offa, who was then the thane, had two sons, Oswald the elder, and Ella
the younger, with whom our readers are already acquainted.

The elder possessed few of the family virtues save brute courage. He was
ever rebellious, even in boyhood, and arrived at man's estate in the
midst of unsettled times of war and tumult. Weary of the restraints of
home, he joined a band of Danish marauders, and shared their victories,
enriching himself with the spoils of his own countrymen. Thus he
remained an outlaw, for his father disowned him in consequence of his
crime, until, fighting ag