depict what the writer believes to be the
true relative positions of Edwy and the great ecclesiastic; therefore he
will not attempt to deal with the subject here. It will be noticed
however, that he has shorn the narrative of the dread catastrophe with
which it terminated in all the histories of our childhood. Scarcely any
writer has made such wise research into the history of this period as
Mr. E. A. Freeman, and the author has adopted his conclusions upon this
point. With him he has therefore admitted the marriage of Edwy with
Elgiva, although it was an uncanonical marriage beyond all doubt, and
has given her the title of queen, which she bore in a document preserved
by Lappenburg. But, in agreement with the same authority, the writer
feels most happy to be able to reject the story of Elgiva's supposed
tragical death. All sorts of stories are told by later writers, utterly
contradictory and confused, of a woman killed by the Mercians in their
revolt. This could not be Elgiva, for she was not divorced till the
rebellion was over; and even the sad tale that she was seized by the
officers of Odo, and branded to disfigure her beauty, rests on no good
authority. In spite of the reluctance with which men relinquish a
touching tragedy, the calumny should be banished from the pages of
historians; and it is painful to see it repeated, as if of undoubted
authenticity, in a recent popular history for children by one of the
greatest of modern novelists.

Edwy's character has cost the writer much thought. He has endeavoured to
paint him faithfully--not so bad as all the monastic writers of the
succeeding period (the only writers with few exceptions) describe him;
but still such a youth as the circumstances under which he became placed
would probably have made him--capable of sincere attachment, brave,
and devoted to his friends, yet careless of all religious obligations;
bitterly hostile to the Church, that is to Christianity, for the terms
were then synonymous; and reckless of obligations, or of the sanctity of
truth and justice.

His measures against St. Dunstan, as they are related in the tale, have
the authority of history; although it is needless to say that the agents
are in part fictitious characters. The writer's object has been to
subordinate fiction to history, and never to contradict historic fact;
if he has failed in this intention, it has been his misfortune rather
than his fault; for he has had recourse to all such