But Edwin--my brother Edwin! tell me of him!" cried Athelstane,
grasping the shoulder of the page.

"Did not his drowning cry reach thine ear, royal Athelstane?" asked
Wilfrid, bursting into tears. "Ere thy tall vessel had disappeared
from our sight the fair-haired Atheling was ingulfed in the stormy
billows that swelled round our frail bark, and I, only I, am, by the
especial mercy of God, preserved to tell thee the sad fate of thy
father's son, whom thou wert, in an evil hour, moved by a treacherous
villain to destroy."

"Traitor," said the king, turning to Brithric, "thy false tongue hath
not only slain my brother, but thyself! Thou shalt die for having
wickedly induced me to become his murderer!"

"And thou wilt live, O king, to suffer the pangs of an upbraiding
conscience," replied the culprit. "Where was thy wisdom, where thy
discrimination, where thy sense of justice, when thou lent so ready an
ear to my false and improbable accusations against thy boyish brother?
I sought my own aggrandizement--and to have achieved that I would have
destroyed thee and placed him upon the throne. I made him my tool--you
became my dupe--and I now myself fall a victim to my own machinations."

The guards then removed Brithric from the royal presence, and the next
day he met with his deserts in a public execution.

As for the faithful Wilfrid, King Athelstane not only caused the lands
and titles of which his father, Cendric, had been deprived, to be
restored to him, but also conferred upon him great honors and rewards.
He lived to be the pride and comfort of his widowed mother, Ermengarde,
and ever afterward enjoyed the full confidence of the king.

The royal Athelstane never ceased to lament the death of his
unfortunate brother, Edwin. He gained many great victories, and
reigned long and gloriously over England, but he was evermore tormented
by remorse of conscience for his conduct toward his youthful brother,
Prince Edwin.

CISSY'S AMENDMENT.

BY ANNA L. PARKER.

She was a dainty, blue-eyed, golden-haired darling, who had ruled her
kingdom but four short years when the events in our history occurred.
Very short the four years had seemed, for the baby princess brought
into the quiet old house such a wealth of love, with its golden
sunshine, that time had passed rapidly since her arrival, as time
always does when we are happy and contented.

Our little princess did not owe her title to royal birth, but to her