"Hast thou forgotten Wilfrid, the son of Cendric?" replied the youth;
"he who commended himself to the mercy of the King of kings, in that
dark hour when thy brother Edwin implored for thine in vain."

"Ha!" cried the king, "I remember thee now; thou art the pale stripling
who bore witness of my brother's innocence of the crime with which the
false-tongued Brithric charged him!"

"The same, my lord," said Wilfrid; "and God hath witnessed for my truth
by preserving me from the waters of the great deep, to which thou didst
commit me with my lord, Prince Edwin."

"But Edwin--my brother Edwin! tell me of him!" cried Athelstane,
grasping the shoulder of the page.

"Did not his drowning cry reach thine ear, royal Athelstane?" asked
Wilfrid, bursting into tears. "Ere thy tall vessel had disappeared
from our sight the fair-haired Atheling was ingulfed in the stormy
billows that swelled round our frail bark, and I, only I, am, by the
especial mercy of God, preserved to tell thee the sad fate of thy
father's son, whom thou wert, in an evil hour, moved by a treacherous
villain to destroy."

"Traitor," said the king, turning to Brithric, "thy false tongue hath
not only slain my brother, but thyself! Thou shalt die for having
wickedly induced me to become his murderer!"

"And thou wilt live, O king, to suffer the pangs of an upbraiding
conscience," replied the culprit. "Where was thy wisdom, where thy