claimed in astonishment, "surely you would not
have all men free and equal."

"The idea seems strange to you, no doubt, Edmund, and it appears only
natural that some men should be born to rule and others to labour, but
this might be so even without serfdom, since, as you know, the poorer
freemen labour just as do the serfs, only they receive a somewhat
larger guerdon for their toil; but had the two races mixed more closely
together, had serfdom been abolished and all men been free and capable
of bearing arms, we should have been able to show a far better front to
the Danes, seeing that the serfs are as three to one to the freemen."

"But the serfs are cowardly and spiritless," Edmund said; "they are not
of a fighting race, and fell almost without resistance before our
ancestors when they landed here."

"Their race is no doubt inferior to our own, Edmund," his father said,
"seeing that they are neither so tall nor so strong as we Saxons, but
of old they were not deficient in bravery, for they fought as stoutly
against the Romans as did our own hardy ancestors. After having been
for hundreds of years subject to the Roman yoke, and having no occasion
to use arms, they lost their manly virtues, and when the Romans left
them were an easy prey for the first comer. Our fathers could not
foresee that the time would come when they too in turn would be
invaded. Had they done so, methinks they would not have set up so broad
a line of separation between themselves and the Britons, but would have
admitted the latter to the rights of citizenship, in which case
intermarriage would have taken place freely, and the whole people would
have become amalgamated. The Britons, accustomed to our free
institutions, and taking part in the wars between the various Saxon
kingdoms, would have recovered their warlike virtues, and it would be
as one people that we should resist the Danes. As it is, the serfs, who
form by far the largest part of the population, are apathetic and
cowardly; they view the struggle with indifference, for what signifies
to them whether Dane or Saxon conquer; they have no interest in the
struggle, nothing to lose or to gain, it is but a change of masters."

Edmund was silent. The very possibility of a state of things in which
there should be no serfs, and when all men should be free and equal,
had never occurred to him; but he had a deep respect for his father,
who bore indeed the reputation of being one of the wisest a