llowed."

Here Edric interrupted--"I do not sit here to be judged, but to judge.
These accusations cannot be heard."

"There is a judgment seat above where you will not be able to make
that plea," said the prisoner solemnly.

"Alfgar," said the bishop, "this counter-accusation cannot be
received; have you aught else to urge?"

"None. I commit my cause to God."

The court retired.

The pause was long and painful. It afterwards transpired that the
bishop pleaded in Alfgar's favour, while Herstan ably seconded him;
but all was in vain. Edric's eloquence, and the strong circumstantial
evidence against the prisoner, carried the day, and the ealdorman even
proposed that execution should be speedy, "lest," he whispered,
"Canute should interfere to screen his instrument."

It was a dangerous game, but he thought the services he had rendered
the Danish cause enabled him to play it safely.

They returned. All men saw the verdict in their faces. Edric spoke
with great solemnity.

"We find the prisoner guilty."

There was a dead pause.

"I appeal to the judgment of God. I demand the ordeal cf fire," said
Alfgar {xix}.

"It cannot be denied," said the bishop, who had anticipated the
appeal. "I myself will see to the preliminaries; and it may take place
tomorrow morning in St. Frideswide's church."

Edric and his sympathisers would fain have denied the claim, but they
could not resist the bishop, backed as he was by the popular voice,
for the cry, "The ordeal! yes, the ordeal!" was taken up at once by
the populace.

While he was hesitating, his brother Goda appeared amongst the crowd.

"Canute," he whispered, "draws nigh Oxenford. He has heard what is
going on."

Edric trembled, but soon recovered himself. However, it was not a time
to deny justice.

The following morning the church of St. Frideswide was crowded at the
early mass. All the friends of the accused were there, and Edric with
all his party. The holy service was about to commence, when the crowd
at the church door moved aside; a passage was speedily made though the
crowd, and three or four ecclesiastics, one habited as a royal
chaplain, escorted a stranger, to whom all paid instinctive reverence,
yet hardly knowing why, for he was only clad in the ordinary robes
worn by noblemen amongst the English.

He was led to the choir, and placed where Edmund had knelt by Edric's
side some days previously. Edric saw him, and exchanged glances, after
which th