dusty
labour, was not yet so glaring a one.

How then, it may be asked, did this Edmund rise into favour; become to
such astonishing extent a recognised Farmer's Friend? Really, except
it were by doing justly and loving mercy to an unprecedented extent,
one does not know. The man, it would seem, 'had walked,' as they say,
'humbly with God;' humbly and valiantly with God; struggling to make
the Earth heavenly as he could: instead of walking sumptuously and
pridefully with Mammon, leaving the Earth to grow hellish as it liked.
Not sumptuously with Mammon? How then could he 'encourage
trade,'--cause Howel and James, and many wine-merchants, to bless him,
and the tailor's heart (though in a very short-sighted manner) to sing
for joy? Much in this Edmund's Life is mysterious.

That he could, on occasion, do what he liked with his own, is
meanwhile evident enough. Certain Heathen Physical-Force
Ultra-Chartists, 'Danes' as they were then called, coming into his
territory with their 'five points,' or rather with their
five-and-twenty thousand _points_ and edges too, of pikes namely and
battle-axes; and proposing mere Heathenism, confiscation, spoliation,
and fire and sword,--Edmund answered that he would oppose to the
utmost such savagery. They took him prisoner; again required his
sanction to said proposals. Edmund again refused. Cannot we kill you?
cried they.--Cannot I die? answered he. My life, I think, is my own to
do what I like with! And he died, under barbarous tortures, refusing
to the last breath; and the Ultra-Chartist Danes _lost_ their
propositions;--and went with their 'points' and other apparatus, as is
supposed, to the Devil, the Father of them. Some say, indeed, these
Danes were not Ultra-Chartists, but Ultra-Tories, demanding to reap
where they had not sown, and live in this world without working,
though all the world should starve for it; which likewise seems a
possible hypothesis. Be what they might, they went, as we say, to the
Devil; and Edmund doing what he liked with his own, the Earth was got
cleared of them.

Another version is, that Edmund on this and the like occasions stood
by his order; the oldest, and indeed only true order of Nobility known
under the stars, that of Just Men and Sons of God, in opposition to
Unjust and Sons of Belial,--which latter indeed are _second_-oldest,
but yet a very unvenerable order. This, truly, seems the likeliest
hypothesis of all. Names and appearances alter so s