"Drink hael first, my gracious lord," replied Elfrida, presenting the cup to the king.

He received it with a smile, and bowing courteously to the queen, repeated the accustomed salutation of "Waes hael," and raised it to his lips, but the same moment he felt the stab of an assassin's dagger from behind. He dropped the fatal goblet from his hand, and cast a look of keen but silent reproach on his perfidious step-mother; but ere he could recover his bridle reign, to turn his steed for flight, the deadly thrust was repeated, and his treacherous assailants closed about him to prevent his escape.

Indignation at the deep-laid iniquity of the snare into which he had suffered himself to fall thus easily, rendered the young king insensible for a moment to the smart of his wounds; but fully aware of the desperation of his situation, he struck the rowels into the side of his mettled gray, and the good steed as if equally conscious of his master's peril, with one gallant bound broke through the murderous circle, and dashed across the plain with the speed of an arrow just discharged from the bow, and presently distanced the pursuit of the traitors, who continued to trace the course the wounded king had taken by the red life-drops that tracked his path through the forest.

The last sound that fell on Edward's ear was the

* The Saxon phrase for drinking health, from which expression that once general custom was derived, which means, "Wish health," or "I wish your health."

piercing cry of a child in mingled grief and terror, -it was the voice of his brother Ethelred, who, on beholding the barbarous deed from a window of the castle, filled the air with his shrieks and lamentations. The assurances of his guilty mother, that it was for his sake, and to make him a king, that the crime had been perpetrated, instead of consoling him, increased his distress to such a passionate degree, that the queen, who considered that his tears a reproach to herself, becoming infuriated at what she styled his unseasonable sorrow, threw herself upon him, and beat him in so violent a manner *that it was for some time a matter of doubt to those about her whether she had not slain her own son in the ungovernable transport of her rage, that son, for whose advancement she had the moment previous caused so deadly a crime to be perpetrated in her very presence.

The unfortunate Edward meantime, though he had succeeded in outstripping the pursuit of his ruthless enemies, was sensible of the approach of a foe whom he could neither resist nor flee from. Life ebbed apace from the unstanched wounds, the landscape reeled in confusion before his swimming eyes, he struggled with the deadly faintness that was stealing over him, and laboured to rally his failing powers; but the hand of death was heavy at his

* "With a wax altar-taper;" say the Saxon chroniclers that being the first weapon that fell in the way of this furious and unreasonable woman."

heart; the reigns dropped from his relaxing grasp, and he fell from the saddle to the ground.

It is related that his foot unfortunately catching in the stirrup, the body of the king, whether dead or living is not exactly known, was much mangled, in consequence of being dragged at a rapid rate along the ground by the terrified horse, which at length stopped of his own accord, at the gate of a blind woman's cottage. This lonely woman, notwithstanding the deprivation of sight under which she laboured, ascertained that some fatal accident had befallen the unfortunate youth, and though ignorant of his rank, she humanely carried the bleeding body into her humble dwelling, and laid it on her own bed, while she hastened to procure assistance.

The wicked Elfrida, whose emissaries had tracked the horse to this place, sought to conceal her crime by causing the corpse of the murdered king to be thrown down a deep well; but there, in consequence of the evidence of the blind widow, it was presently discovered by his sorrowful friends, and her guilt was proclaimed to the whole world, by the indignant Archbishop Dunstan, at the coronation of her son Ethelred, and he then predicted that a crown so obtained could never prosper with the descendants of this bad woman.

The high rank of the queen protected her from the punishment due to her crime; but she was regarded with hatred and contempt by all mankind; and feeling herself an object of horror to her own son, for whose advancement she had perpetrated

this barbarous deed, and above all, tormented by the fearful stings of her own accusing conscience, she retired to the gloomy shades of a convent, where she spent the residue of her days, vainly endeavouring, by constant penances and fasts, to expiate her crime.

HISTORICAL SUMMARY.

WHEN Edward, the eldest son of Edgar the Peaceable, succeeded to his father's throne, under the guardianship, or regency, of Archbishop Dunstan, his dominions were exceeding prosperous; besides swaying the sceptre of the united Saxon heptarchy, he was bretwalda, or emperor over the whole island of Great Britian, the kings of Scotland and Wales paying him vassal homage for their several domains ; in short, he held the same rule that Edward Plantagenet the First afterwards endeavoured to obtain, and succeeded only in regard to Wales. The united wisdom of Edgar the Peaceable and his prime minister, Dunstan, established the English sceptre in peace and prosperity. During his reign the native Danes were kept in bounds, and the invading ones repelled. This desirable order of things was entirely subverted by the crime of Elfrida, the stepmother of King Edward; for, during the weak reign of her son and pupil, Ethelred, the Danes obtained the mastery of England, and

inexpressible miseries ensued to the country, which nad a pause when Edward the Confessor succeeded to the throne, and were afterwards renewed, with tenfold horror, by the invasion of another set of Northmen, under William the Conqueror. The whole of this wretchedness may be traced to the personal wickedness of one woman.

Elfrida was the only child of the Earl of Devonshire, and was considered the greatest beauty and the richest heiress in England. The king, Edgar, who was then a widower, having lost his wife, Elfleda the Fair, the mother of his eldest son, Edward, thought that the heiress of Devonshire was worthy to be his consort; but, as she had been brought up in great retirement, and Edgar required beauty and grace in a queen, as well as riches, he thought that report might have exaggerated these qualities in Elfrida, and sent Ethelwold, his favourite, to visit Elfrida, and give him a true account of her claims to personal beauty. Ethelwold went accordingly, and found the young lady so charming that he fell in love with her, and wooed her for himself instead of his master, to whom he gave a false testimony, declaring that Elfrida had no charms but in her rich inheritance. Edgar immediately relinquished the design of marrying her, and his favourite observed, that although Elfrida was not qualified to be the wife of a great king, she was a wealthy match, and he should, if the king would permit him, marry her himself forthwith. King Edgar consented, and Ethelwold soon after wedded