Prince Edwin could not deny that he had used these words; but it seemed to him very hard that they should be repeated to the king in the hour of his sore distress.  Looking around, with a countenance expressive of mingled sorrow and indignation, he said,—­

“Unhappy that I am! they that were my most familiar friends are they that speak against me!  Is there no one that can bear me witness that I am guiltless of the crime of plotting to take away my brother’s life?”

“I will, though I die for it!” cried a voice, feeble from bodily suffering, but firm in the courageous utterance of truth.  It was that of Wilfrid, the page, who, with his countenance still pale and disfigured from the effects of the blow received from Prince Edwin, stood boldly forward to bear witness of the scene which had taken place in his presence between Brithric and the prince.

“Oh, Wilfrid, generous Wilfrid,” cried Edwin, bursting into tears, “how nobly do you fulfill the precepts of your heavenly Master by returning good for evil!”

Now Athelstane had been so deeply prejudiced against his unfortunate brother by the wicked Brithric, that he would not listen to Wilfrid’s honest evidence.  When, therefore, he heard that he was the son of the traitor Cendric, who had been so deeply implicated in Alfred’s plot, he was so unjust as to believe all that Brithric said against him.  Accordingly, he took Wilfrid, as well as the young Atheling, and carried them prisoners to London.  He there put them on board a ship that was lying in the river Thames, and when night came, set sail with them and went out to sea.

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.