.

She entered England full of joyful anticipations, and made rapid
journeys towards the place where Edwy held his court. But Odo and
Dunstan, who had been apprised of her coming, intercepted her, and
ordered that she should be tortured and put to death. They caused
the cords of her limbs to be severed, so that she was unable to walk
or move. The beautiful girl survived the cutting and maiming but a
few days.

Weeping continually over her disappointments and sorrows, and
shrieking at times from the acuteness of her pain, she died at
Gloucester,--perhaps the most unfortunate princess who ever came to
the English throne.

When Edwy heard of her death, he ceased to struggle for his right;
he cared for nothing more. He grew paler and thinner day by day, his
beauty faded, his thoughts turned heavenward, and he aspired to a
better crown and kingdom. He died of a broken heart before he
reached the age of twenty, having aimed for three years to govern
well.

Edwy's short reign was followed by that of his brother Edgar, who
succeeded to the Anglo-Saxon throne in the year 959, and was an
unprincipled and dissolute king.

He was fifteen years of age when he began to reign. One of his first
acts was to reward the intriguing Dunstan for his crimes by
bestowing upon him the archbishopric of Canterbury. Think of
conferring an archbishopric as the price of a brother's ruin and
death! Ah, better to be Edwy the Fair in his early grave, with the
birds singing and the violets waving above him, than the cruel boy
Edgar upon the throne.

He resigned the government almost wholly to Dunstan, his primate,
and spent his time in gayety, pleasure, and ease. He was unstable,
profligate, and vicious. He once broke into a convent and carried
off a beautiful nun, named Editha. For this violation of the
sanctuary, Dunstan commanded him not to wear his crown for seven
years, which was no great punishment, as he could ornament his head
as well in some other way.

Dunstan certainly possessed great ability as a statesman. He
employed the vast armaments of England against the neighboring
sovereigns, and compelled the King of Scotland and the Princes of
Wales, of the Isle of Man, and of the Orkneys, to do homage to
Edgar.

The boy king annually made a voyage around England in great state,
accompanied by princes and nobles.

On one of these occasions, when he wis