was learned in
all pious tricks; he stole the father's heart from his elder brother."

Elfric began to listen at this point.

"At last, misjudgment and unkindness drove the elder brother from home,
and he sought food and shelter from men who had the souls of conquerors.
With them he lived, for his father disinherited him; he had no father,
he had no country."

Elfric began to draw his breath quickly.

"At length war arose between those who had sheltered and protected him,
and the people who should have been his own people; say what side was
the exile to be found on?"

"He should have fought with his own people."

"His own people were those who had really adopted him when his father
and family disowned him, and with them he fought for victory; but the
fates were unpropitious, the people with whom his father and brother
fought were successful; the son was taken prisoner, and adjudged to die
a traitor's death, his own father and brother consenting."

Elfric began to comprehend all.

"They put him on board an open boat, and sent him out to sea, at the
mercy of winds and waves; but not alone; he had married amongst the
people who had adopted him, and his boy would not forsake his sire, for
he had one boy--the mother was dead. This boy besought the
hard-hearted executioners of a tyrant's will to let him share the fate
of his sire, so earnestly, that at last they consented."

"The boat, as it pleased fate, was driven by wind and tide on the shore
of Denmark, and there the unhappy exile landed; but he had been wounded
in the battle, and his subsequent exposure caused his early death;
before he died he bequeathed one legacy, and only one, to his son--

"Vengeance."

Elfric was pale as death, and trembled visibly.

"Then you are--"

"Elfric, I am your cousin, and the deadly foe of you and yours!"

"Then my poor father; but if you must find a victim seek it in me; spare
him! oh, spare him!"

Redwald smiled; but such a smile.

"At least let me see him now, and obtain his forgiveness. Redwald, he is
my father; you were faithful to your father; let me atone for my
unfaithfulness to mine."

"You believe there is another world, perhaps?"

Elfric. only answered by a look of piteous alarm.

"Because, in that case, you must seek your father there; although I fear
Dunstan would say there is likely to be a gulf between you."

Elfric comprehended him, and with a cry which might have melted a heart
of stone, fell ba