Warlewood, & after Horewood, not shewing that he meant him anie hurt, till at length he had got him within the thicke of the wood, where he suddenlie stroke him through with his dart.  Now as his bastard son came to the place, the king asked him how he liked the maner of hunting, wherto he answered; “Verie well if it like your grace, for that that liketh you, ought not to displease me.”  With which answer the king was so pacified, that he indeuored by pretending his fauor towards the sonne, to extenuat the tyrannicall murther of the father.  Then did the king marie the countesse Alfred, and of hir begat two sonnes, Edmund which died yoong, and Etheldred or Egelred.

Besides this cruell act wrought by king Edgar, for the satisfieng of his fleshlie lust, he also plaied another part greatlie to the staine of his honor, mooued also by wanton loue, with a yoong damosell named Wilfrid, for after that she had (to auoid the danger of him) either professed hir selfe a nun, or else for colour (as the most part of writers agree) got hirselfe into a nunrie, and clad hir in a nuns weed, he tooke hir foorth of hir cloister, and lay by hir sundrie times, and begat on hir a daughter named Edith, who comming to [Sidenote:  His licentious life & incontinencie.] conuenient age, was made a nun.  A third example of his incontinencie is written by authors, and that is this.  It chanced on a time that he lodged one night at Andeuer, and hauing a mind to a lords daughter there, he commanded that she should bee brought to his bed.  But the mother of the gentlewoman would not that hir daughter should be defloured:  and therefore in the darke of the night brought one of hir maidseruants, and laid hir in the kings bed, she being both faire, proper, and pleasant.

In the morning when the day began to appeare, she made hast to arise:  and being asked of the king why she so hasted; That I may go to my daies worke if it please your grace (quoth she.) Herewith she being staied by the king, as it were against hir will, she fell downe on hir knees, and required of him that she might be made free, in guerdon of hir nights worke.  For (saith she) it is not for your honor, that the woman which hath tasted the pleasure of the kings bodie should anie more suffer seruitude vnder the rule and appointment of a sharpe and rough mistresse.

The king then being mooued in his spirits, laughed at the matter, though not from the heart, as he that tooke great indignation at the dooings of the dutchesse, and pitied the case of the poore wench.  But yet in fine (turning earnest to a iest) he pardoned all the parties, and aduanced the wench to high honor, farre aboue those that had rule of hir afore, so that she ruled them (willed they nilled they:) for he vsed hir as his paramour, till he maried the foresaid Alfred.