The Kings Sons | Page 7

he likes."
"And so he shall!" said Bald boldly. "That is, he shall do as I like.
Father has gone to fight the Danes, and while he's away, as I am the
eldest, I shall act in his place, and shall expect everyone to obey me as
if I were King."
"Oh, no, no, no," cried Swythe, looking shocked. "Our dear lady
Osburga is Queen, and everyone must obey her."
"Do not speak of that to me!" cried Ethelbald. "She is only a woman,

and cannot manage the men. Why, if father should be killed--"
"Which Heaven forbid!" cried Swythe, with a look of horror on his face.
"Oh, dear me, Ethelbald, what a thing for you to say! Shocking, my
dear boy."
"I don't want him to be killed," cried Bald. "Of course not. But if he
should be killed I shall become King directly, and I shall order
everybody to do what I like, and no one will dare to say a word. The
first thing I shall do," he continued, with a laugh, "will be to send old
Swythe away, so that there will be no more learning Latin, boys, and no
crabbing fingers up to hold tens."
The three brothers said something with a shout which in those days
answered to "Hooray!" and then Alfred, who had shouted the loudest,
being the youngest and ready to think brother Bald's words very brave
and fine, suddenly began to feel uncomfortable; for he had a certain
amount of fear of the monk his master, and felt a kind of shrinking
from rebelling against his authority. He glanced sidewise at Father
Swythe and saw that his eyes glimmered in a peculiar way as if water
was rising in them. Directly afterwards his heart felt a little sore, and a
sense of shame began to trouble him, for there was no mistake: Father
Swythe's eyes were wet and his voice sounded hoarse and strange as he
said sadly:
"You would not send me away, Ethelbald? I have always tried to do my
duty to the young sons of my lord the King and have tried to make
them grow into scholarly princes fit to rule the land."
"Bah! We do not want to be scholarly!" cried Bald scornfully. "We
want to learn to be brave soldiers, so that we can go forth and beat the
Danes."
"Yes," said the monk sadly; "but, my boys, the warrior who's a scholar
as well is more brave and noble and merciful, and his name is one that
lives longer in the land. Ah, well, you have made me very sad. I had
hoped that I had done something to make the sons of my dear lady the
Queen love me; but if they do not it would be better perhaps that I

should go back to my cell at the old abbey, where I could be happy
with my parchments and my pens."
The old monk sighed and turned away; he appeared to have received a
shock which had broken his heart.
The three elder boys were laughing and joking about the matter, and
suddenly Ethelbald cried out:
"Come along, boys! Bows and arrows. I saw a roebuck feeding outside
the oak wood. Here, we'll take spears with us too to-day. Let old
Swythe teach the swineherds' boys to read Latin instead of minding the
little pigs hunting for acorns."
"No spears left!" said Bert.
"The men took them all when they went away!" said Red.
"Then let's go without!" said Bald.
Alfred said nothing; he was watching the monk going slowly and sadly
away, and somehow the little figure did not look comic to him then,
even if it was short and plump and round.
"Where's Fred?" cried Bald the next minute, when the boys were
getting their bows and quivers.
His brothers could not tell him where Alfred was; so after a few
moments pause, Ethelbald said:
"Never mind: let's go without him. Hers too young and weak to do
what we do. Let him stay behind and learn Latin with old Swythe."
"He did go out after him," said Bert.
"Yes, I saw him. I remember now," cried Red.
His last words were almost smothered by his eldest brother, who raised
to his lips a curling cow-horn tipped with a copper mouthpiece and

strengthened with a ring at the head end. He proceeded to blow into it,
but failed to produce anything more huntsman-like than a kind of bray
such as might be uttered by a jackass suffering from a sore-throat.
But it was good enough to send all the dogs about the place frantic, and
away the three boys went, followed by a pack of hounds, some of
which would have been as ready to tackle wolf or boar as to dash