property and escape. I would not say such 'No," interrupted Merdhin. "I have committed the legal offence, and, however small it may appear to you, I will bear the penalty." "You will thereby keep the power of appeal to the king, and may get quit of the other sentence, as I said," replied Willebrod. "Yes, I believe that will be your wisest way. Tomorrow, or as soon as we hear that you are accused, I will cause the bishop to be informed that I will produce you, on summons from him, to the next gemot. And here you will remain, my friend, till your affair comes on." "I would willingly, my comrade: but there is my week's tale to the commissioner to be provided. Here is nothing ready,-my first night's gain gone,-and in three days from this time I must appear with my tribute at Peterborough.” "Impossible! It cannot be done," decided Willebrod. "The commissioner's business must give way to the king's. He must wait, if indeed we cannot baffle him altogether." "But my family!" "I will see to that. I shall have to send a messenger round to all your bail to inform them that you are safe, and what course you intend to take. The same man-and I will send none but a trusty one-will make clear to the abbot, and to Hildelitha, and to the commissioner himself, that you must have time. Or, suppose you go yourself." "No, I will not." "You do not doubt our trusting you to appear on summons. You do not suppose I want to keep you as a prisoner here!" "I know you well;-it is not that," replied Merdhin. "I will not go because the Danes would take the occasion of any failure to insult and degrade me before the face of the holy monks and of my wife. For Hildelitha's sake I will not go." Stay "I believe you are right, comrade. and repose yourself here. And now to sleep!" He compelled his guest to return to his bed, and lay down himself on a bear-skin near the fire, which he fed so well that he needed little covering but his woollen cloak. ing as the friends had anticipated. A messenger had been sent round among Merdhin's bail, with orders to call last at the monastery at Peterborough, and there deliver the excuses due for the failure of the first week's tribute, together with a token from the bishop and the bail that they required the presence of Merdhin in his own hundred for some little time to come. The bishop's summons had been served, and Merdhin and his securities were to appear before the next gemot to answer the charge of his having chased the king's game in a royal forest without authority. In the interval Merdhin wrought in his friend's fields, and would not listen to Willebrod's urgent sugges tions that he should go home and see how his own land was faring. He felt that he had rather see it a waste in the end than put himself voluntarily in the way of its present occupants-the Danish superintendents of the new causeway. He found his best solace in toiling for Willebrod, and rarely looked off from his occupation but when the tread of horses' feet, or the horn or shout wherewith wayfarers were compelled by law to authenticate themselves as travellers and not thieves, made him hasten into the road to see if news of Hildelitha and his little ones was arriving. The approach of a mule one day made him so look up. It was not the messenger, but Father Olaf, a monk from the next convent. As he passed he said in answer to the obeisance of Merdhin and then of Willebrod, "Follow me, my sons." At the door he dismounted in silence; and when he had taken his seat beside the fire, he desired that all should withdraw but the host and Merdhin. Both these anticipated something serious from his manner of proceeding; and it was a relief when he remarked that it was profitable to recite the writings of pious men as the beginning of intercourse, and he would therefore read for the private edification of his sons then present some passages from a discourse of the Rev. Bishop Lupus, preached during the late reign. There was the more need, he observed, for such occasional reading, as this very sermon preached, not many years before, in open church, could now be only privately recited, and to trusty ears alone. The hearers seated themselves near the monk, and he proceeded to read, in a subdued voice: "We perpetually pay them tribute, and they ravage us daily." Merdhin and Willebrod looked at each other and at the reader on becoming aware that his A few days passed, and affairs were proceed- subject was a denunciation of the Danes. The reader did not look up from his scroll, but full upon Merdhin; "and we must all be continued: "They ravage, burn, spoil, and plunder, and carry off our property to their ships. Such is their successful valour, that one of them will in battle put ten of our men to flight." "Nay-nay!" cried the listeners. Olaf continued with emphasis: loyally thankful that we have a merciful king, whatever his servants may be and do-a king merciful and just when we can but reach his ear." 66 "And how to reach his ear?" said Willebrod. That is what we have to consider," replied Father the monk, "for the case of my son here sorely craves justice and mercy. Strengthen your heart, my son, to hear the news. Your tale of wolves' tongues was not delivered two days since, nor did you appear. Twenty-four hours' grace was allowed. At the end thereof a Danish ship was sailing from the nearest point of the Deeps; your children were put on board as slaves. "Two or three will drive a troop of captive Christians through the country from sea to sea. Very often they seize the wives and daughters of our thanes and cruelly violate them before the great chieftain's face. The slave of yesterday becomes the master of his lord to-day, or he flees to the Vikingr, and seeks his owner's life in the earliest battle. Soldiers, famine, flames, and effusion of blood abound on every side. Theft and murder, pestilence, diseases, calumny, hatred, and rapine dreadfully afflict us. Widows are frequently compelled into unjust marriages; many are reduced to penury and are pillaged. The poor men are sorely seduced and cruelly betrayed, and, though innocent, are sold far out of this land to foreign slavery. Cradle children are made slaves out of this nation . . The monk's voice here failed him, and he turned his face from the gaze of his hearers as he cleared his throat to proceed: "Cradle children are made slaves out of this nation through an atrocious violation of the law for little stealings. The right of freedom is taken away: the rights of the servile are narrowed, and the right of charity is diminished. Freemen may not govern themselves, nor go where they wish, nor possess their own as they like.' Merdhin bounded from his seat, and cried, "And Hildelitha!" "She had disappeared last night. Whether she had attempted to follow her children, or had escaped in the hope of finding you, could only be conjectured. But the impression in the convent was that she was not in the hands of any Danes." Merdhin rushed from the room. After a moment's hesitation about intruding on his grief, Willebrod followed him. But it was too late. He had flung himself on the horse which, in such dwellings and such times, usually stood saddled for sudden flight, and galloped, bareheaded, towards the woods. Messengers were sent after him in vain. The next day the horse returned alone, and was found at his stable door. From the saddle there dangled a wolf's head. "See this token!" cried Willebrod to the monk, who had returned for tidings. "He lets us know by this that he 'bears the wolf's A deep sigh from Merdhin here made the head.' Merdhin an outlaw!" reader put down his scroll. "These are the things," said the monk, .which made the wise Elfric write that we, with our living eyes, might look for doomsday, as the end of the world was surely very near. Since then our affairs have improved somewhat. We have not at present open war; and whereas the Bishop Lupus says, further on, the clergy are robbed of their franchises, and stripped of all their comforts,' it is now very different: we having a pious king who duly favours religion in its establishments and in its ministers. But as for the rest, much remains still too true." And the monk sighed. "What would you have us do?" asked Willebrod. A deadly sickness of the heart kept Merdhin silent. "The most afflicted must endure with a godly patience," replied Father Olaf, looking "An outlaw and marauder!" sighed Father Olaf, "as many of our best freemen have become when, as Lupus preached, the 'right of freemen is taken away.' But will he not come in to summons before the gemot for his actual offence? Will his bail have to bear his penalty?" "His estate will defray that: and if not, we will. But that Merdhin should become an outlaw!" The spring of this year opened early. One | mild evening a procession of boats passed near the shores of Thorn-ey-so near as to bring out the inhabitants of the farm-houses and cottages to see whether the voyagers were harmless or to be dreaded. The first boat carried a flag which, as it floated on the wind, disclosed the Raven. But all dread vanished when it was clearly seen that the king himself was on board. as he had heard was, from any but a child, an unseemly accompaniment to a Christian song, and ordered that the sufferer, if a maniac, should be aided by holy prayers, and if not, should be conveyed in the last boat of his company, that he might inquire into the case at Peterborough. "She is no maniac, unless grief be called, in its extremity, madness," said Father Olaf, breathless, between his speed downhill and his eagerness to interest the king. There he was, seated at the stern, and look | the monks, declared that such a voice of woe ing towards the land: and truly, the orchards on the slopes, already tinged with the pink and white of their opening blossoms, the deeper shades behind, and the convent roof and belfry rising amidst them; and all these reflected in the still waters beneath made a picture on which the young king might gaze in hearty love of his new dominions. It was the convent bell tolling over the wide waters which had brought the little fleet so near; for Canute loved to hear the music of devotion at all times. As the chant of the evening service rose and fell on the wind, he made a signal to the rowers to slacken their speed; and forthwith the whole fleet became nearly motionless, scarcely disturbing, as they glided on, the shadows on the surface. The gaze of the king was fixed on the monastery. Only once he looked aside, and that was when, in a momentary interval of the music, a voice of lamentation was heard from the shore-a feeble woman's cry-which was drowned in the next swell of voices. When the service was over, and the king had devoutly crossed himself, he hummed a few notes, which were eagerly caught up by his crew. They joined voices heartily in singing the ballad composed by the king himself, the first stanza of which remains to us: "Merry sung the monks in Ely, When Cnute king rowed thereby. Each boat's crew took up the succeeding stanza; and the king turned to listen. But between every verse was heard that cry on the island. When it occurred the third time Canute started from his seat, shaded his eyes from the slanting rays of the setting sun, and gazed in upon the shore. He then signed to make for the land; and great was the commotion that ensued there. You know the story," said Canute. "Room shall be made for you and her in the last boat -no, in the next boat to my own, if you will silence that cry: and before I sleep your story shall be heard. And the king re-embarked, leaving Father Olaf no more time than to entreat his abbot to send Willebrod after them with the utmost speed. The king had supped in the house reserved for his use at Peterborough, and he was sitting down to a game at chequers with one of his knights when a sudden thought seemed to cross him. · Kingly duty must come before sport,” said he. On the word the commissioner Hagen placed himself in full view, with a large black board, on which a sort of map was traced in chalk. The abbot of Peterborough called to his almoner to produce the king's alms-pouch. The ealdorman of the district declared himself ready with the record of the last shire-gemot. Almost everyone present was ready with some piece of "kingly duty" for his sovereign to do. But the king took no notice of any of these preparations. He directed that Father Olaf and the complaining woman should be summoned to the next apartment, where he joined them, attended only by his chamberlain, who bore the silver lamp before him, and his chancellor, whose presence he rarely dispensed with on occasions of inquiry and appeal like the present. In a few minutes one of the secretaries was called from among the company in the hall; and from this it was inferred by the courtiers that the game of chequers might wait a good while. The holy monks immediately issued from their gate, and hastened down to receive their guest, as they supposed the king meant to be. But Canute could not stop. He was to-morrow to survey the line proposed for his great new causeway, afterwards called the King's Delf, and in use to this day. He had in perfection It was not long, however, before a sudden the royal will and faculty of investigating hush was caused by the opening of the door of every incident that befel within his observa- the ante-chamber. The hangings, stiff with tion, as well as a new-born benevolence, spring-embroidery of silver and gold, were held aside ing from prosperity, strengthening with peace by the chamberlain, and the king appeared. and time, and contrasting strangely with the "Some of this business," said he, “will not barbarity which seemed natural to him during wait." the first years of his presence in England. He now stepped on shore, returned the greeting of And he called on the commissioner, who stood forth, not without dread. "I gave you a commission about my cause- | cording to their respective methods of admiraway," said the king. "I gave you none to in- tion, the titles by which he was celebrated in terpret my laws, and to invent punishments his own day and afterwards the Brave, the for my people. I now deliver to you a new Generous, the Pious, the Great. commission. Can you prophesy what it is?" Hagen's countenance fell. He feared the terrible retribution of having to fulfil himself the sentence he had inflicted on Merdhin. But the king, whose faculty of reading the thoughts of his courtiers was known to all about him, continued: "The vile task of collecting wolves' tongues is one which is not, and shall not be, imposed on any freeman; on any but criminals condemned to death." Careless of the murmur of praise which he had left behind him, Canute sat in the antechamber, in consultation with his chancellor. The hardy young warrior's face was as grave, and from its earnestness almost as reverend as that of his counsellor. The secretary sat in silence, awaiting orders or dismissal. "I am satisfied," said the chancellor, in answer to a question from the king, "I am satisfied alike by the testimony of the wife, the monk Olaf, and the freeman Willebrod, Under the sense of relief the commissioner that the new forest laws are not answerable loudly exclaimed: "Canute the King is the most just of kings." "Hear then the new commission which my justice appoints you. Bring back the children of Merdhin, and place them yourself in the arms of their mother, in the presence of my lord abbot here." for the flight and ruin of this man. He was prepared to obey the summons of the bishop; was awaiting the day in the house of one of his bail. And a man must be out of his senses who would go forth in winter and bear the wolf's head from fear of a mere fine which he was well able to pay. It was oppression from "But the vessel may have sailed-must a different quarter that drove him forth, and have sailed. 'My king, he has fled no one knows where, for the offence of hunting in the royal forests." "For his offence in the forest he shall suffer according to law. That is an affair which you may leave to myself and his bail. Your affair is to find him, and bring him hither in safety. He is among the band of marauders that inhabit the forest near Crowland. Take what force is necessary; and remember I shall know how you use it. Take heed to this man's safety. You have shown small respect to the laws of this our new country; but by those laws I govern; and by them account must be rendered to me for the life of every freeman, the king being every freeman's legal lord and patron. Now-begone!" "Such is your royal pleasure?" replied the uneasy commissioner. "It is: but not the whole of it. It is my pleasure also to find you some commission in Denmark when this business is settled. I have sent home the greater part of my followers; and none shall remain who do not respect the laws of this island and the rights of its people." The king retired by one door, and Hagen by another, leaving the Saxon and Danish members of the court to vent to one another their enthusiasm for the king. They gave him, ac not our forest laws." 'It is well," said the king. "I would have those laws, like all others, just, doing all the good possible, with the least hardship. On the one hand, the state of the country compels us to require that every freeman shall bear arms, and arm his dependents; and on the other, it is necessary to preserve landed estates from being infested by such armed men in pursuit of beasts of chase. It appeared to us that the due and best security would be given by declaring every possessor of land the possessor of whatever was upon it, to give or to keep at his pleasure, and therefore to punish any one who laid hands without leave on the trees of any woodland, or on any beast, bird, or fish that dwells within the bounds of any estate. Does this ordinance appear to you as just as when it was made?" "It does." the humility of the king who speaks such words." "No," replied the king, reprovingly. "You speak against your better knowledge. My office is sacred, and must be secured on the lives of other men, because the lives and welfare of other men depend on it. My person is sacred, and must be secured on the lives of other men for the same reason. But my property and my pleasures are those of a noble among nobles; and "A noble among nobles!" murmured the chancellor in devout admiration. "Higher than other nobles only in this," pursued the king, "that I stand in the midst of them, and am naturally the point of appeal to the weak and the wretched, as in this case. A man round whom most of the weak gather for justice and protection becomes more powerful than those who are so resorted to by only one or two; but his power is thus enhanced merely in extent, not in kind. No more sacredness is given to his lands, and no greater value to his beasts of chase. The battle-field is my chase when I hunt as a king; and there it is death for any one to cross my path. When I sport in my own woodland, if any one come between me and the boar, he offends merely against the proprietor of the land." "However it may be with your beasts, birds, and fishes," observed the chancellor, "it is certain that your thoughts are kingly." "And yours," said Canute, "are not faithful when you would darken my views of the law instead of clearing them. It was yourself who informed me of the old law of the kingdoms on the mainland on which I founded that of my new island." The chancellor was glad to escape from his embarrassment by citing this same old law: "Cuique enim in proprio fundo quamlibet feram quoquo modo venari permissum." "See then," said the king, rising, "that our intentions in making our forest law are fairly fulfilled in the case of this man Merdhin, and every other accused of the slaughter or pursuit of game on another man's land. I would fain pardon this Merdhin; but we must respect the law we made in deliberation. Never let it be said, however, that Canute the king bears harder than the law for offences done against Canute the hunter." quiet and moderate enough till heaven or hell gives him power to work his full will; and then he makes men groan under his scourge. Here is a man who lived among groans, as if they were music, wherever he went as a conqueror through this land; and now that he is as great here as the sun in the sky, he moderates his flames as if his head were snowy with age instead of golden with youth. He studies night and day to make wise laws for the people's rule, and sweet ballads for their holiday hours. His sternness is, in these days, not for Saxons, but for the most obsequious, of whatever race. Heaven, who sent him, knows best where this will end. Perhaps we may see the Brave and Great a weeping pilgrim some day, or his sceptre may sprout into a saint's palm-rod before he dies." The shepherd of the monastery was rarely wrong in his predictions; and it was some years before he was proved mistaken in having said that Merdhin could never again fully enjoy his home, or recover a tranquil mind. Merdhin's terrified children were restored to his arms; his wife's shaken spirits were calmed; his servants returned home; and the dwelling and fields looked much like themselves in the course of a season or two. Moreover, the commissioner Hagen had set sail for Denmark as soon as he had brought Merdhin to Peterborough; and every Dane in the region knew that no molestation was to be offered to the household of the farmer on Thorn-ey. But this outward tranquillity did not suffice to calm the tempest which that one shock had aroused. Good Father Olaf, who watched over the family, observed that Merdhin was most happy when working out his fine to repay his bail; and he took this hint in regard to the other offence which lay heavy on the man's conscience-his having joined the band of marauders in the forest. While his heart bled with compassion for the despair which had prompted that step-one very common in those days-the monk treated it as a solemn sin, requiring a great penance, well knowing that the larger the penance the greater was the chance of peace at the end of it. He therefore appointed to his penitent a now incredible amount of repetition of prayers and psalms. But, better than this, he recited to him, in the language of the church, the acts for which he might commute the appointed penance. The king returned to the hall and his game at chequers, leaving his chancellor musing "He may repair churches where he can, and over the change wrought, and still working in make folkways, with bridges over deep waters him, by the leisure of peace and the possession and over miry places; and let him assist poor of power. men's widows, and step-children, and foreign"One man," thought the chancellor, "is ers. He may free his own slaves, and redeem |