aid the king.

"I acknowledge it with grief, my royal lord," said Ermengarde, for that
was the name of the Saxon widow; "but it rests with thy good pleasure
to restore to his innocent child the forfeit lands of the unhappy
Cendric."

"Is this boy the son of the traitor Cendric?" asked the king, placing
his hand on the head of the weeping Wilfrid.

"He is, my gracious lord," replied Ermengarde. "He has been carefully
brought up in the fear of God, and I, his widowed mother, will be
surety to thee, that the boy shall serve thee truly and faithfully all
the days of his life if thou wilt but restore him to his inheritance."

"Widow of Cendric, listen to me," said the king. "Thy husband plotted
with traitors to deprive me of my crown and my life; and the laws of
his country, which he had broken, doomed him to death, and confiscated
his lands and castles to my use. I might retain them in my own hands,
if it were my pleasure so to do; but I will only hold them in trust for
thy son, whom I will make my ward, and place in the college at Oxford.
If he there conducts himself to my satisfaction, I will, when he comes
of age, restore to him the forfeited lands of his father, Cendric."

Ermengarde and Wilfrid threw themselves at the feet of the gracious
Athelstane, and returned their tearful thanks for his goodness.

"Wilfrid," said the king, "your fortunes are now in your own hands; and
it depends on your own conduct whether you become a mighty thane or a
landless outcast. Remember, it is always in the power of a virtuous
son to blot out the reproach which the crimes of a wicked parent may
have cast upon his name."

The words of King Athelstane were as balm to the broken spirit of the
boy, and they were never forgotten by him in all the trials, many of
them grievous ones, which awaited him in after-life.

King Athelstane, and his brother, Prince Edwin, were sons of King
Edward, surnamed the Elder, the son and successor of Alfred the Great.
After a glorious reign, Edward died in the year of our Lord 925, and at
his death a great dispute arose among the nobles as to which of his
sons should succeed him in the royal dignity.

Athelstane had early distinguished himself by his valor in battle, his
wisdom in council, and by so many princely actions, that he was the
darling of the people. His grandfather, the great Alfred, had,
therefore, on his death-bed adjudged Athelstane to be the most suitable
of all Edward's sons to re