Dead Mans Plack and an Old Thorn | Page 4

lithe,
so soft, of so affectionate a disposition, yet capable when suddenly
roused to anger of striking with lightning rapidity and rending the
offender's flesh with its cruel, unsheathed claws.
Consider the line he took, even as a boy! He recognised among all
those who surrounded him, in his priestly adviser, the one man of so
great a mind as to be capable of assisting him effectually in ruling so
divided, war-loving and revengeful a people, and he allowed him
practically unlimited power to do as he liked. He went even further by
pretending to fall in with Dunstan's ambitions of purging the Church of
the order of priests or half-priests, or canons, who were in possession of
most of the religious houses in England, and were priests that married
wives and owned lands and had great power. Against this monstrous
state of things Edgar rose up in his simulated wrath and cried out to
Archbishop Dunstan in a speech he delivered to sweep them away and
purify the Church and country from such a scandal!
But Edgar himself had a volcanic heart, and to witness it in full
eruption it was only necessary to convey to him the tidings of some
woman of a rare loveliness; and have her he would, in spite of all laws
human and divine. Thus when inflamed with passion for a beautiful
nun he did not hesitate to smash the gates of a convent to drag her forth
and forcibly make her his mistress. And this too was a dreadful scandal,
but no great pother could be made about it, seeing that Edgar was so
powerful a friend of the Church and of pure religion.
* * * * *
Now all the foregoing is contained in the histories, but in what follows
I have for sole light and guide the vision that came to me at Dead Man's
Plack, and have only to add to this introductory note that Edgar at the
early age of twenty-two was a widower, having already had to wife
Ethelfled the Fair, who was famous for her beauty, and who died
shortly after giving birth to a child who lived to figure later in history

as one of England's many Edwards.

II
Now although King Edgar had dearly loved his wife, who was also
beloved by all his people on account of her sweet and gentle disposition
as well as of her exceeding beauty, it was not in his nature to brood
long over such a loss. He had too keen a zest for life and the many
interests and pleasures it had for him ever to become a melancholy man.
It was a delight to him to be king, and to perform all kingly duties and
offices. Also he was happy in his friends, especially in his favourite,
the Earl Athelwold, who was like him in character, a man after his own
heart. They were indeed like brothers, and some of those who
surrounded the king were not too well pleased to witness this close
intimacy. Both were handsome men, witty, of a genial disposition, yet
under a light careless manner brave and ardent, devoted to the pleasure
of the chase and all other pleasures, especially to those bestowed by
golden Aphrodite, their chosen saint, albeit her name did not figure in
the Calendar.
Hence it was not strange, when certain reports of the wonderful beauty
of a woman in the West Country were brought to Edgar's ears that his
heart began to burn within him, and that by and by he opened himself
to his friend on the subject. He told Athelwold that he had discovered
the one woman in England fit to be Ethelfled's successor, and that he
had resolved to make her his queen although he had never seen her,
since she and her father had never been to court. That, however, would
not deter him; there was no other woman in the land whose claims were
equal to hers, seeing that she was the only daughter and part heiress of
one of the greatest men in the kingdom, Ongar, Earldoman of Devon
and Somerset, a man of vast possessions and great power. Yet all that
was of less account to him than her fame, her personal worth, since she
was reputed to be the most beautiful woman in the land. It was for her
beauty that he desired her, and being of an exceedingly impatient
temper in any case in which beauty in a woman was concerned, he
desired his friend to proceed at once to Earl Ongar in Devon with an

offer of marriage to his daughter, Elfrida, from the king.
Athelwold laughed at Edgar in this his most solemn and kingly mood,
and with a friend's privilege told him not to be