man who never goes to
church, and does not company over much with those who do."

"Infidel! heretic! pagan! misbeliever! accursed Ragnar!" began the irate
monk, when an arrow, perhaps only meant to frighten him (for they could
hardly have missed so fair a mark), glanced by him.

He retreated, but still continued his maledictions.

"_Excommunicabo te, et omnes tibi adhaerentes_; thou art an accursed
parricide, who hast raised thine hand against thy father's house. _Vade
retro, Sathanas_, I will shake off the dust of my feet against thee,"--
another arrow stuck in his frock--"thou shalt share the fate of Sodom,
yea of Gomorrha; _in manus inimici trado te_;" by this time his words
were inaudible; and he departed, not having accomplished much good, but
having nevertheless informed Redwald of two great facts--the first,
that Elfric's return was blazed abroad; the second, that his own
identity was more than suspected.

"Ragnar!" said he, "What fiend has told them that? how came they to
suspect? Confusion! it will foil all my plans, and my vengeance will be
incomplete. At least this one victim must not escape, and yet I had
sooner he should escape than any other member of the house. Poor boy!
the sins of the fathers are heavy upon the children, as these Christians
have it; but my oath, my oath taken before a dying father! no; he must die!"

So spake the avenger of blood, a man whose heart was evidently not all
of iron; yet from childhood had he striven to restrain every tender
impulse, and had bound himself to vengeance. Long years of peace in
England had come between him and the execution of his projects, and he
had prepared himself for the task he never lost sight of, by acquiring
all the accomplishments of a knight and warrior, and even of a man of
letters, at that court of Rouen, now rapidly becoming the focus of
European chivalry, where the fierce barbarian Northmen were becoming the
refined but ruthless Normans. Then, in England, he had wormed himself
into the confidence of the future king with singular astuteness, and at
length had found the occasion he had long sought, in a manner the most
unforeseen save as a possible contingency.

And now he turned from the battlements to his own chamber, but on the
way he paused, for he passed the door of the late thane's room, where
poor Elfric lay. He passed the sentinel and entered. The unhappy boy was
extended on the bed, in a raging fever; ever and anon he called
piteousl