cated rapidly to all the tenantry.

Hourly they expected the forces of Mercia to appear, and exact a heavy
account from Redwald for his offences. He was supposed to be the
instigator of the expedition which had failed so utterly; it was not
likely that he would be allowed to retain Aescendune a long time. The
only surprise people felt was that he should have dared to remain at the
post when all hope of successful resistance had ceased. He had his own
reasons, which they knew not.

Under these circumstances it seemed desirable to hurry forward the
interment, lest it should be interfered with from without, in the
confusion of hostile operations against the hall.

The priory church was a noble but irregular structure, of great size for
those days. The cunning architect from the Continent, who had designed
it, had far surpassed the builders of ordinary churches in the grandeur
of his conception. The lofty roof, the long choir beyond the transept,
gave the idea of magnitude most forcibly, and added dignity to the
design. In the south transept was a chapel dedicated especially to St.
Cuthbert, where the aged Offa reposed, and the mother of Ella. There
they had removed the body to await the last solemn rites. Six large wax
tapers burned around it, and watchers were there day and night--
mourners who had loved him well, and felt that in him they had lost a
dear friend.

The wife, the son, or the daughter, were ever there, but seldom alone.
For when the monks in the choir were not saying the canonical hours, or
the low mass was not being said at one of the side altars, still the
voice of intercession arose, with its burden:

"Eternal rest give unto him, O Lord,
And let perpetual light shine upon him."

At length the morning came, the second only after death. The
neighbouring thanes whom the troubled times did not detain at home, the
churls of the estate, the thralls, crowded the precincts of the minster,
as the solemn bell tolled the deep funeral knell. At length the monks
poured into the church, while the solemn "_Domino refugium_" arose from
their lips--the same grand words which for these thousand years past
have told of the eternity of God and the destiny of the creature;
speaking as deeply to the heart then as in these days of civilisation.

The mourners entered, Alfred supporting his widowed mother, who had
summoned all her fortitude to render the last sad offices to her dear
lord; her daughter, a few distant relat