accomplishments, and her moral worth. The name of his oldest son was
Edward; he was to succeed Alfred on the throne, and it was a source
now of great satisfaction to the king to find this son emulating his
virtues, and preparing for an honorable and prosperous reign. Alfred
had warning, in the progress of his disease, of the approach of his
end. When he found that the time was near at hand, he called his son
Edward to his side, and gave him these his farewell counsels, which
express in few words the principles and motives by which his own life
had been so fully governed.

"Thou, my dear son, set thee now beside me, and I will deliver thee
true instructions. I feel that my hour is coming. My strength is gone;
my countenance is wasted and pale. My days are almost ended. We must
now part. I go to another world, and thou art to be left alone in the
possession of all that I have thus far held. I pray thee, my dear
child, to be a father to thy people. Be the children's father and the
widow's friend. Comfort the poor, protect and shelter the weak, and,
with all thy might, right that which is wrong. And, my son, govern
_thyself_ by _law_. Then shall the Lord love thee, and God himself
shall be thy reward. Call thou upon him to advise thee in all thy
need, and he shall help thee to compass all thy desires."

Alfred was fifty-two years of age when he died. His death was
universally lamented. The body was interred in the great cathedral at
Winchester. The kingdom passed peacefully and prosperously to his son,
and the arrangements which Alfred had spent his life in framing and
carrying into effect, soon began to work out their happy results. The
constructions which he founded stand to the present day, strengthened
and extended rather than impaired by the hand of time; and his memory,
as their founder, will be honored as long as any remembrance of the
past shall endure among the minds of men.

CHAPTER XIII.

THE SEQUEL.

The romantic story of Godwin forms the sequel to the history of
Alfred, leading us onward, as it does, toward the next great era in
English history, that of William the Conqueror.

Although, as we have seen in the last chapter, the immediate effects
of Alfred's measures was to re-establish peace and order in his
kingdom, and although the institutions which he founded have continued
to expand and develop themselves down to the present day, still it
must not be supposed that the power and prosperity o