time I present the red wine to him at the banquet it shall be drugged
with such a draught as shall make Prince Edwin lord of England within
an hour after the usurper has swallowed it."

"Traitor, begone!" exclaimed the prince, filled with horror at this
dreadful proposal. "I would not stain my soul with the crime of
murder, if by such means I could obtain the empire of the world."

Brithric used many wicked arguments to induce Prince Edwin to consent
to the murder of his royal brother; but Edwin commanded him to leave
his presence, and never to presume to enter it again. The vile wretch,
however, alarmed lest the prince should inform the king of the crime he
had meditated against him, went to his royal master and accused the
Atheling of having endeavored to persuade him to mix poison in the wine
cup of his sovereign.

Athelstane, justly indignant at the crime laid to the charge of his
royal brother, came with a party of guards to the college. Here,
before his preceptors and all the royal wards, his companions, he
charged Edwin with having meditated the crime of treason and fratricide.

You may imagine the consternation of the prince on hearing this
dreadful accusation. It was to no purpose that he protested his
innocence, and called on all his faithful associates to witness for him
that he had never uttered an injurious thought against the king. Those
who had been most ready to flatter him were silent on this occasion,
for they perceived that King Athelstane was persuaded of his brother's
guilt; and some of them said, "They remembered that Prince Edwin had
often said that he had a better title to the throne than King
Athelstane."