CHAPTER IV.

Prince Edwin was not greatly alarmed, for he thought the king, his
brother, was only going to banish him to some foreign country, where he
fondly thought that Wilfrid and himself might live together very
happily. But when they were out of sight of land, and the moon had
risen over a wild waste of stormy billows, the king had both the
prisoners brought upon deck, and he then ordered the captain to put
them into a small boat and set them adrift at the mercy of the winds
and waves.

It was to no purpose that the wretched Edwin threw himself at his
brother's feet, and entreated for mercy. Athelstane only replied, "You
tried to persuade my faithful cup-bearer to take my life--your own
life, therefore, is forfeited; but, as you are the son of my royal
father, I will not shed your blood upon the scaffold. I commit you and
your guilty companion, the son of the traitor Cendric, to the mercy of
God, who can and will preserve the innocent if it be his good pleasure
so to do."

"And to His mercy, not thine, O king! do I, in full confidence of
innocence, commend both myself and my unfortunate master," said
Wilfrid, as the seamen hurried him, with the weeping Atheling, over the
side of the vessel into the little boat that lay tossing and rocking
among the tempestuous billows.

When the unhappy youths found themselves alone, without sails or
rudder, on the pathless ocean, they sank into each other's arms and