confess the other."

He passed into thought, looking into the fire, and we were still
beside him. The queen moved away to the seat where Eadward had been
sitting and took his place, staring out of the window with unseeing
eyes. And I was glad that she was no longer beside us.

Presently the king raised his head and turned it a little towards
me.

"Redwald," he said, "you were our companion in Normandy, and you
are a trusted friend of ours. It will not be long before the queen
must fly to her brother--the good duke--again, and it is in my mind
that her flight will be perilous. When that time comes, let it be
your place to see her safely thither, with the athelings, her sons.
It may be that Olaf will help you, but that you must see to as best
you can. And I have sent for Abbot Elfric to help you."

"Lord king," I said, "what I can I will do, but I think there are
men better fitted than I to guard our queen."

"None whom we trust more fully," the king said.

"See, my queen, this is he to whom you must look for furtherance of
your journey."

Then Emma turned from the window, and her face was still unmoved.

"I can trust Redwald," she said. "It will be well."

But Eadward wept openly, for he knew that the king spoke of the day
when he should die.

"That is well," the king said, and leaned back on his pillows. "Now
have I no care left. Yet it is hard to put so heavy a burden on
your young shoulders, my thane."

"It is an honour rather," I answered. "May I be worthy thereof."

Then a brightness came over the king's face, and he answered me
slowly and plainly, and with great joy, as it were.

"Presently I shall meet with Eadmund, your martyred king, and to
him I will say that his thane of Bures is worthy."

"Forget me not also, my father, when you come to that place,"
Eadward said.

"I will not forget. Now is given me to see plainly what shall be in
the time to come--to what all tends even now. For now in the time
of my death comes to me rede unearthly, as I think. There must be a
strong hand who shall weld England into one--who shall bid our land
forget that difference has ever been betwixt Angle and Saxon, Jute
and Northumbrian, Mercian and Wessexman, Saxon and English and
Dane. And when that wonder is wrought, then shall come peace and a
new life to the land, under one who will give them the laws that
they need to bind them into one English race, strong and honest,
and patient in all things."

Then sai