under such circumstances, must have had something besides generosity toward a fugitive enemy to impel him.  Godwin was soon found to possess a large portion of that peculiar spirit which constitutes a soldier.  He was ambitious, stern, energetic, and always successful.  He rose rapidly in influence and rank, and in the course of a few years, during which King Canute triumphed wholly over his Saxon enemies, and established his dominion over almost the whole realm, he was promoted to the rank of a king, and ruled, second only to Canute himself, over the kingdom of Wessex, one of the most important divisions of Canute’s empire.  Here he lived and reigned in peace and prosperity for many years.  He was married, and he had a daughter named Edith, who was as gentle and lovely as her father was terrible and stern.  They said that Edith sprung from Godwin like a rose from its stem of thorns.

A writer who lived in those days, and recorded the occurrences of the times, says that, when he was a boy, his father was employed in some way in Godwin’s palace, and that in going to and from school he was often met by Edith, who was walking, attended by her maid.  On such occasions Edith would stop him, he said, and question him about his studies, his grammar, his logic, and his verses; and she would often draw him into an argument on those subtle points of disputation which attracted so much attention in those days.  Then she would commend him for his attention and progress, and order her woman to make him a present of some money.  In a word, Edith was so gentle and kind, and took so cordial an interest in whatever concerned the welfare and happiness of those around her, that she was universally beloved.  She became in the end, as we shall see in due time, the English queen.

In the mean time, while Godwin was governing, as vicegerent, the province which Canute had assigned him, Canute himself extended his own dominion far and wide, reducing first all England under his sway, and then extending his conquests to the Continent.  Edmund, the Saxon king, was dead.  His brothers Edward and Alfred, the two remaining sons of Ethelred, were with their mother in Normandy.  They, of course, represented the Saxon line.  The Saxon portion of Canute’s kingdom would of course look to them as their future leaders.  Under these circumstances, Canute conceived the idea of propitiating the Saxon portion of the population, and combining, so far as was possible, the claims of the two lines, by making the widow Emma his own wife.  He made the proposal to her, and she accepted it, pleased with the idea of being once more a queen.  She came to England, and they were married.  In process of time they had a son, who was named Hardicanute, which means Canute the strong.