Alfgar the Dane or the Second Chronicle of Aescendune

by Frank V. Webster

  CHAPTER XXIII. WHO HATH DONE THIS DEED?

  Alfgar never saw his beloved lord enter his chamber with a look ofgreater weariness than he bore that night.

  "It has been a hard fight, old friend," said the familiar king, "butwe have conquered; for my part, I would far sooner have stood outagainst him, battle-axe in hand, than have met this struggle, could Ihave foreseen it beforehand; but now I have given him the kiss ofpeace, peace it must be; he has no more to dread from me."

  "Nor you from him, I trust."

  "I must trust so, or I should not feel I had really forgiven, and Icannot give my hand where my heart is not; but yet it was such afight. 'Tis easy to stand in the deadly gap and keep the foe from abeleaguered citadel: men praise the deed, and there is a feeling ofconscious pride which sustains one, but the truly great deeds arethose which no chronicler records. It requires more bravery to forgivesometimes than to avenge."

  "I can well believe that, my lord."

  "Well, if my path has been beset with foes, so has it with friends.Such love as yours, Alfgar, I say as yours has been!--well, few kingsshare such affections."

  "My lord, you first loved me; at least you saved me from a fearfuldeath."

  "And you have warded off death from me again and again in thebattlefield; nay, deny it not, nor say it was merely your duty, men donot always do such duty."

  "My lord, you praise me more than I can feel I deserve."

  "Not more than I feel you deserve, and yet were not this your lastnight as my companion, were not tomorrow's ceremony to separate us,perhaps for ever, I do not think I should thus overwhelm your modesty.

  "You blush like a girl," said he, laughingly.

  He lingered some time, and seemed loath to undress. At last he said:

  "Have you seen the messenger Canute sent me?"

  "Yes; I entertained him at the buttery as you requested."

  "Well, he came with a proposal from Canute that we should join inbuilding and endowing a church at Assingdun, where a priest may eversay mass for the souls of our dead, whether English or Dane. Of courseI have accepted the offer, but Canute added another and moremysterious message."

  "And what was that?"

  "'Beware,' he said, 'of Edric; his apparent desire of reconciliationcannot be trusted;' and he added that Edric was like a certain personwho wanted to become a monk when he was sick."

  "I fear he speaks the truth."

  "But I cannot act upon his advice; it is too late now. I have strivento do what I thought, and the bishop said, in his Master's name, wasmy duty--well, I have my reward in the approbation of my conscience.Goodnight, Alfgar, goodnight; I shall sleep soundly tonight; I hopesome day I may lay me down for my last long sleep as peacefully."

  Alfgar followed his example, and, commending himself to God, slept.

  About half-an-hour after midnight Alfgar awoke with a strangeimpression upon his mind that some one was in the room. It was verydark and stormy, and the wind, finding its way through crevices in theill-built house, would account for many noises, but there wassomething stirring which was not the wind, and the impression wasstrong on his waking senses that between him and the window, which wasopposite his bed, a figure had passed.

  Not fully trusting impressions produced at such a moment, yet with aheavy vague sense of evil weighing him down like a nightmare, Alfgarlay and listened.

  At length he heard a sound which might have been produced by fallingrain percolating through the roof, drop, drop upon the floor, but itwas strange, for there was no sound of rain outside at that moment.

  At length a cold draught made him turn his head, and he dimly sawEdmund's door open and disclose the window within the room, then shutslowly again.

  He could control his apprehensions no longer, and rose gently from hisbed, so as not to warn the foe, on the one hand, should one bepresent, or if, as he strove to believe, all was fancy, not to awakeEdmund. No one was in his own little room, that he felt rather thansaw in a moment; but some one might be in Edmund's, and he passedthrough the door, which he remembered, with a shudder, was shut firmlywhen Edmund said "goodnight." At that instant he heard a low click, asof a spring lock, but very faintly; hesitating no longer, he passedinto the monarch's room, and advanced to the bedside.

  "My lord!" he gently whispered, but there was no answer; he spokeagain in vain.

  Just then he felt his naked feet come into contact with some wetsubstance, slightly glutinous, on the floor, and shuddered at thecontact. All trembling, he put his hand to the pillow, and drew itback; it was wet with the same fluid, which his reason and experiencetold him was blood. He could hardly refrain from crying for help, butfirst sought a light. The process of procuring light then from flint,steel, and tinder was very slow, and it was some minutes before he hada taper lighted, when its beams disclosed to his horror-stricken sightEdmund, weltering in his blood; a dagger had been driven suddenly andswiftly to his heart, and he had died apparently without a struggle.The weapon yet remained {xviii}.

  Here his affliction and grief overpowered him; he threw himself uponthe body from which he had withdrawn the weapon; he kissed the nowcold lips; he cried, half distracted, "O Edmund, my lord, speak!"

  Alas! those lips were never to speak again while time lasted. Atlength the first deep emotion passed away, and left the unhappy Alfgarcomparatively master of himself, whereupon he left the chamber, andcried aloud for help.

  It was his cry which the ladies heard in their distant bower.

  The piercing cry, "Help! Edmund, the king, is slain!" roused thehousehold--Elfwyn, Herstan, Hermann, the ladies, agitated beyondmeasure; the household guard; and, last of all, Edric.

  They beheld Alfgar in his night dress, all bloody, holding a dagger inhis hand, and with his face blanched to a death-like paleness,uttering cry upon cry.

  "Help! Edmund, the king, is slain!"

  They (the men) rushed to the chamber, and, passing through Alfgar'slittle room, beheld, by the light of many torches, Edmund bathed inhis own blood, which still dripped with monotonous but terrible soundon the floor.

  Edric entered, and with woe, real or affected (no one could tell),painted in his face, approached the body; and Elfwyn and Herstanbeheld, or thought they beheld, a prodigy: they thought they saw theeyes open, and regard Edric, and that they saw the blood well up inthe wound. But doubtless this was fancy.

  "One thing we all must do," said Edric; "we must all help to find themurderer. The first step to that effect will be to note all presentappearances. First, where is the weapon?"

  "Here," said Alfgar, extending it.

  "Why, Alfgar, it is your own dagger," said Elfwyn; "one which he gaveyou himself."

  Alfgar uttered a plaintive and pitiful cry.

  Edric possessed himself of the blood-stained weapon.

  "Alfgar," said he, "you must have slept soundly. Tell us what youheard and saw."

  He briefly related the particulars with which the reader isacquainted.

  "But how could they enter? Was your door unfastened?"

  "No; it was bolted on the inside, even as I left it last night."

  "Bolted on the inside! then they must have entered through thewindow," said Edric, noting the words.

  "Impossible," said both the thanes; "they are barred, both ofthem--heavily barred."

  "We can no longer assist our departed lord save by our prayers," saidEdric. "God be thanked, he died friends with me. I shall value theremembrance of that kiss cf peace in St. Frideswide's so long as Ilive. And now I, once his foe, but his friend and avenger now, devotemyself to hunt the murderer. So help me God!"

  "So help me God!"

  "So help me God!" said all present, one after the other.

  "We are then of one heart and soul, and no tie of kindred, nofriendship, shall bar our common action. And now we must rouse thereeve and burgesses; the gates of the city must be closed, that noneescape. I will send members of the guard to do this, and when theyhave assembled we will all take counsel together."

/>   "O Alfgar," whispered Elfwyn, "how came your dagger there?"

  "I know not. I feel as one distracted," said the faithful and lovingAlfgar, who had lost by this fell stroke a most faithful friend, withthe warmest heart which had ever beaten beneath a monarch's breast.

  Oh, how the thought of the conversation last night came back to himnow--the warning of Canute, the loving words of affection which hadbeen spoken to him by those lips now cold in death!

  All the imperfections of his character now faded away; he seemed sobrave, yet so loving, so invincible in combat, yet so gentle andforgiving, as he had shown in forgiving even--even--even--said Alfgarto his own wounded bleeding heart--even in forgiving his murderer. Forin his eyes it was Edric, and none but Edric, who had done this deed.

  But a terrible suspicion of a very opposite nature was rapidlyassuming sway in other men's minds.

  A council met before daybreak--the reeve or mayor, the chiefburgesses, two or three thanes then in the town, the officers of theroyal guard, Elfwyn, Herstan, and Edric. After a few preliminariesEdric rose and spake as follows:

  "We have met together under the most awful responsibility which couldfall upon subjects. Edmund, our king, has been murdered, and by whomwe know not."

  All were silent.

  "I grieve to say," he continued, "that there is but one upon whom oursuspicions can now fall with any shadow of probability--one who isnow absent, for I thought it well not to summon him to this council;and before naming him, I must recall to you, Elfwyn, and to you,Herstan, the solemn oath we have all three taken to disregard allappeals of natural affection, and to ascertain the truth, God beingour helper."

  "We have."

  "We have," said they with bursting hearts, for they foresaw whataccusation Edric was about to bring.

  "I grieve, then, to say," he continued, "that this natural affectionmust be bitterly tried, for there is but one to whom my words canapply. Meanwhile, I will put a few questions. With whose dagger wasthe deed committed?"

  "Alfgar's," replied those who had been there the previous night.

  "Whose chamber commanded the only entrance to the royal chamber?"

  "Alfgar's."

  "Who incautiously, as if forgetting himself, stated that he found thedoor bolted on the inside?"

  "Alfgar."

  "But the motive--the motive? The poor fellow loved him as he loved hisown father."

  "I cannot explain that difficulty, but I can suggest one motive whichmay already have suggested itself to several. But let me ask of whatnation is Alfgar?"

  "A Dane; but an Englishman by long habit."

  "I can answer for that," said Elfwyn.

  "Once a Dane always a Dane. Now a secret messenger arrived from Canuteyesterday, and had a long private interview with Alfgar. In short, Idare not say all I know or suspect, for there can be little doubt whowill reign in England now."

  All were silent.

  At length Edric continued, "none can deny that we have grounds for oursuspicions."

  "Yes, I do deny it," said Elfwyn, "the more so when I remember whomakes the accusation."

  "You do well to reproach me; I deserve it, I confess, and more thandeserve it. Yes, I was Edmund's enemy once; but perhaps you rememberyesterday and the early mass at St. Frideswide's."

  "We do, we do," cried all but Elfwyn and Herstan; but they wereutterly outvoted, and the order was given to the captain of thehus-carles to arrest Alfgar.

  Alfgar, desolate and almost distracted, not heeding that he was notsummoned to the council, as he might so naturally have expected to be,wandered mechanically about the palace until the bell summoned him tothe early mass. The bishop was the celebrant, for Father Cuthbert wasto have officiated at the celebration of the marriage of his son inthe faith. The solemn pealing of the bell for the mass at the hour ofdaybreak fell upon Alfgar's ears, and he turned almost mechanically tothe cathedral, yet with vague desire to communicate all his griefs andtroubles to a higher power than that of man, and to seek aid from adiviner source.

  He entered, knelt in a mental attitude easier to imagine thandescribe, but felt some heavenly dew fall upon his bleeding wounds; heleft without waiting to speak to any one at the conclusion of theservice, and was crossing the quadrangle to the palace which occupieda portion of the site of modern Christ Church, when a heavy hand waslaid upon his shoulder.

  He turned and saw the captain of the guard; two or three of hisofficers were beside him.

  "It is my painful duty to arrest you and make you my prisoner."

  "On what charge?" said the astonished Alfgar.

  "The murder of the king."