“Peace! and no more from out her brazen portals
The blast of war’s great organ shakes the skies;
But, beautiful as songs of the immortals,
The holy harmonies of peace arise.” 
—­Longfellow.

The end.

i Genealogy of Aescendune.

The reader may be glad to have the genealogy of the family in whom it has been the author’s aim to interest him placed clearly before him.  The following genealogical table, including the principal names in “The First Chronicle of Aescendune,” as well as those in the present book, may suffice, the date of decease being given in each case.

Offa, 940
  * Oswald, 937.
  * Redwald, 959.
  * Ella, 959, m.  Edith.
       + Elfric, 960.
       + Alfred, 998, m.  Alftrude.
            o Elfric, 975.
            o Elfwyn, 1086, m.  Hilda.
                 # Bertric, 1006.
                 # Ethelgiva, 1064 m.  Alfgar.
            o Cuthbert, 1034.
            o Bertha, 1050 m.  Herstan.
       + Edgitha, 990.

ii Curse of Dunstan.

“In the year of our Lord’s incarnation 979, Ethelred, son of Edgar and Elfrida, obtaining the kingdom, occupied, rather than governed it, for thirty-seven years.  The career of his life is said to have been cruel in the beginning, wretched in the middle, and disgraceful in the end.  Thus, in the murder to which he gave his concurrence he was cruel, base in his flight and effeminacy, miserable in his death.

“The nobility being assembled by the contrivance of his mother, and the day being appointed for Dunstan, in right of his see, to crown him, he, though he might be ill-affected to them, forebore to resist, being a prelate of mature age well versed in secular matters.  But, when placing the crown on his head, he could not refrain from giving vent, with a loud voice, to that prophetic spirit which he so deeply imbibed.  ‘Since,’ said he, ’thou hast aspired to the kingdom by the death of thy brother, hear the word of God.  Thus saith the Lord God:  The sin of thy abandoned mother, and of the accomplices of her base design, shall not be washed out but by much blood of the wretched inhabitants; and such evils shall come upon the English nation as they have never suffered from the time they came to England until then.’  Nor was it long after, that is in his third year, that seven piratical vessels came to Southampton, a port near Winchester, and having ravaged the coast fled back to the sea.  This I think right to mention, because many reports are circulated among the English concerning these vessels.”—­William of Malmesbury, English Chronicle, Bohn’s Edition, pp.

165-166.

iii See “First Chronicle of Aescendune.”

iv Chronology of Father Cuthbert.

The Christian era did not come in use until about the year 532, when it was first introduced in the code of canon law compiled by Dionysius Exiguus, and, even then, the year of the world was still frequently used, as in some cases in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.  When at length the Christian computation became universal, some began the year with the Incarnation (Christmas), others with the Annunciation; a custom not wholly abolished in England till 1752, when the “New Style,” or Gregorian Calendar, was introduced.