some
sort of entertainment, when one of his attendants, who was bringing
in a goblet of wine, tripped one of his feet, but contrived to save
himself by dexterously bringing up the other in such a manner as to
cause some amusement to the guests; Godwin said, referring to the
man's feet, that _one brother saved the other_. "Yes," said the king,
"brothers have need of brothers' aid. Would to God that mine were
still alive." In saying this he directed a meaning glance toward
Godwin, which seemed to insinuate, as, in fact, the king had sometimes
done before, that Godwin had had some agency in young Alfred's
death. Godwin was displeased. He reproached the king with the
unreasonableness of his surmises, and solemnly declared that he was
wholly innocent of all participation in that crime. He imprecated the
curse of God upon his head if this declaration was not true, wishing
that the next mouthful of bread that he should eat might choke him if
he had contributed in any way, directly or indirectly, to Alfred's
unhappy end. So saying, he put the bread into his mouth, and in the
act of swallowing it he was seized with a paroxysm of coughing and
suffocation. The attendants hastened to his relief, the guests rose in
terror and confusion. Godwin was borne away by two of his sons, and
laid on his bed in convulsions. He survived the immediate injury, but
after lingering five days he died.

Edward continued to reign in prosperity long after this event, and he
employed the sons of Godwin as long as he lived in the most honorable
stations of public service. In fact, when he died, he named one of
them as his successor to the throne.

[Footnote 1: Pronounced _Oolf_]

[Footnote 2: Spelled sometimes Herald]

THE END.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of King Alfred of England, by Jacob Abbott

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK KING ALFRED OF ENGLAND ***

***** This file should be named 16545.txt or 16545.zip *****
This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/5/4/16545/

Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Lesley Halamek and the
Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
will be renamed.

Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the U