n, but
who was believed to linger in the neighbourhood of the battlefield,
holding council with earls and thanes as to the further steps to be
taken, and receiving the submission of the whole Mercian, East Anglian,
and Northumbrian nobility.

Therefore, mounted upon a good steed, and accompanied by Oswy, he
rapidly traversed the country over which his brother had been so
painfully borne; slowly, however, in places, for here and there large
tracts of swamp obstructed the way, and in other places the thickets
were dense and impervious; even where the country was cultivated the
unpaved roads were rough and hazardous for riders.

It was past the hour of nones, the ninth hour of the day, when the
riders reached the battlefield, which still bore frightful traces of the
recent combat; reddened with blood, which had left its dark traces on
large patches of the ground, and encumbered with the bodies of horses
and men which had not yet found sepulture, although bands of theows from
the neighbouring estates were busily engaged in the necessary toil,
excavating huge pits, and placing the dead--no longer rivals--
reverently and decently in their last long home. Several wolves could be
discerned, hanging about under the skirts of the forest, but not daring
to come out into the plain while the day lasted and the men were about;
whole flocks of ravenous birds flew about the scene, now settling down
on the spots where the strife had been hottest, now soaring away when
disturbed in their sickening feast.

It was the first time Alfred had ever gazed upon a battlefield; and now
he saw it stripped of all the romance and glamour which bards had thrown
over it, and the sight appalled him.

He drew near a large pit into which the thralls were casting the dead.
Many of the bodies presented, as we have already seen, a most ghastly
spectacle; and nearly all had begun to decompose. Mentally he thanked
God that Elfric, at least, was not there; and he turned aside his head
in horror at the sight.

He now inquired of the foreman of the labourers whether he knew where
the Etheling Edgar would be.

"You mean King Edgar, for the Mercians will acknowledge no other king.
The people of Wessex may keep the enemy of the saints, if they like."

"King Edgar, I mean. Where is he now?"

"He has been holding a council at Tamworth town, in the old palace of
King Offa; and they say all the tributary kings have come there to be
his men, and all the great e