elred's name, any
promises which the English nobles might demand; and shortly afterward
the royal pair crossed the Channel and went to London, and Ethelred was
acknowledged there by the _Saxon_ portion of the population of the
island once more as king.

The _Danes_, however, though weakened, were not yet disposed to submit.
They declared their allegiance to _Canute_, who was the successor in the
_Danish_ line. Then followed a long war between Canute and Ethelred.
Canute was a man of extraordinary sagacity and intelligence, and also of
great courage and energy. Ethelred, on the other hand, proved himself,
notwithstanding all his promises, incurably inefficient, cowardly, and
cruel. In fact, his son Prince Edmund, the son of his first wife, was
far more efficient than his father in resisting Canute and the Danes.
Edmund was active and fearless, and he soon acquired very extensive
power. In fact, he seems to have held the authority of his father in
very little respect. One striking instance of this insubordination
occurred. Ethelred had taken offense, for some reason or other, at one
of the nobles in his realm, and had put him to death, and confiscated
his estates; and, in addition to this, with a cruelty characteristic of
him, he shut up the unhappy widow of his victim, a young and beautiful
woman, in a gloomy convent, as a prisoner. Edmund, his son, went to the
convent, liberated the prisoner, and made her his own wife.

[Illustration: THE RESCUE.]

With such unfriendly relations between the king and his son, who seems
to have been the ablest general in his father's army, there could be
little hope of making head against such an enemy as Canute the Dane.
In fact, the course of public affairs went on from bad to worse, Emma
leading all the time a life of unceasing anxiety and alarm. At length,
in 1016, Ethelred died, and Emma's cup of disappointment and humiliation
was now full. Her own sons, Edward and Alfred, had no claims to the
crown; for Edmund, being the son by a former marriage, was older than
they. They were too young to take personally an active part in the
fierce contests of the day, and thus fight their way to importance and
power. And then Edmund, who was now to become king, would, of course,
feel no interest in advancing _them_, or doing honor to _her_. A son
who would thwart and counteract the plans and measures of a father, as
Edmund had done, would be little likely to evince much deference or
regard for