“Siward, my father, bid the advanced guard bend its course towards Æscendune at once.”
“My lord, the men are too weary to travel all night. We had purposed halting when we reached the battlefield on our march southward. There is a cross-country road thence to Æscendune, almost impassable in the night.”
“Then we will travel early in the morning; and doubt not, Alfred, we shall arrive in time to chastise this insolent aggressor. Redwald has been my poor brother’s evil spirit in all things; he shall die, I swear it,” said the precocious Edgar, a man before his time.
“But, my lord,” said Alfred, “may I ask but one favour, that you will permit me to proceed and relieve the anxiety of my people with the tidings of your approach?”
“If you must leave our side, such an errand would seem to justify you. Poor Elfric! I remember him well. I could not have thought him in any danger from Redwald.”
“Indeed,” said Edgar, and proceeded to elicit the whole history of the case from Alfred.
The sad tale was not complete till they reached the battlefield, and encamped in the entrenchments the young prince had occupied the night before the combat.
“We had intended,” said Edgar, “to march at once for London, owing to news we have received from the south, but we will tarry at Æscendune until the work is completed there, even if it cost us our crown.
“Nay, Siward, I may have my way this once. I am soldier enough to know I may not leave an enemy behind me on my march.”
“But a small detachment might accomplish the work.”
“Then I will go with it myself; my heart is in it. But, Alfred, you look very ill; you cannot proceed tonight. When did you sleep last?”
“Then it would be madness to proceed; you must sleep, and at early dawn you shall precede us on my own charger—which has been led all the way—if your own is too wearied, and with an attendant or two in case of danger from man or beast. Nay, it must be so.”
Alfred, who could scarcely stand for very fatigue, was forced to yield, and that night he slept soundly in the camp of Edgar. At the first dawn they aroused him from sleep, and he found a splendid warhorse awaiting him—a gift, they told him, from Edgar. Two attendants, well mounted, awaited him in company with Oswy. He would willingly have dispensed with their company; but he was told that the king, anxious for his safety, had insisted upon their attending him, and that they were answerable for his safe return to Æscendune, the country being considered dangerous for travellers in its present disturbed state.