eagerly carousing, was perceived by the king alone; when, hurried with
indignation, and impelled by fate, he leaped from the table, caught the
robber by the hair, and dragged him to the floor; but he, secretly
drawing a dagger from its sheath, plunged it with all his force into the
breast of the king as he lay upon him. Dying of the wound, he gave rise
over the whole kingdom to many fictions concerning his decease. The
robber was shortly torn limb from limb by the attendants who rushed in,
though he wounded some of them ere they could accomplish their purpose.
St. Dunstan, at that time Abbot of Glastonbury, had foreseen his ignoble
end, being fully persuaded of it from the gesticulations and insolent
mockery of a devil dancing before him. Wherefore, hastening to court at
full speed, he received intelligence of the transaction on the road. By
common consent, then, it was determined that his body should be brought
to Glastonbury, and there magnificently buried in the northern part of
the tower. That such had been his intention, through his singular regard
for the abbot, was evident from particular circumstances. The village,
also, where he was murdered, was made a offering for the dead, that the
spot, which had witnessed his fall, might ever after minister aid to his
soul,--William of Malmesbury, B, ii. e. 7, Bohn's Edition.

vi A. D. 556--Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.

vii Wulfstan, and the See of Dorchester.

When Athelstane was dead, the Danes, both in Northumberland and Mercia,
revolted against the English rule, and made Anlaf their king. Archbishop
Wulfstan, then of York, sided with them, perhaps being himself of Danish
blood. The kingdom was eventually divided between Edmund and Aulaf,
until the death of the latter. When Edred ascended the throne--after
the murder of Edmund, who had, before his death, repossessed himself of