h young, and
opposed by the prejudices of the people, found an opportunity of
taking revenge for this public insult. He questioned Dunstan
concerning the administration of the treasury during the reign of his
predecessor [t]; and when that minister refused to give any account of
money expended, as he affirmed, by orders of the late king, he accused
him of malversation in his office and banished him the kingdom. But
Dunstan's cabal was not inactive during his absence; they filled the
public with high panegyrics on his sanctity; they exclaimed against
the impiety of the king and queen; and having poisoned the minds of
the people by these declamations, they proceeded to still more
outrageous acts of violence against the royal authority. Archbishop
Odo sent into the palace a party of soldiers, who seized the queen,
and, having burned her face with a red-hot iron, in order to destroy
that fatal beauty which had seduced Edwy, they carried her by force
into Ireland, there to remain in perpetual exile [u]. Edwy, finding
it in vain to resist, was obliged to consent to his divorce, which was
pronounced by Odo [w]; and catastrophe, still more dismal, awaited the
unhappy Elgiva. That amiable princess, being cured of her wounds, and
having even obliterated the scars with which Odo had hoped to deface
her beauty, returned into England, and was flying to the embraces of
the king, whom she still regarded as her husband; when she fell into
the hands of a party, whom the primate had sent to intercept her.
Nothing but her death could now give security to Odo and the monks;
and the most cruel death was requisite to satiate their vengeance.
She was hamstringed; and expired a few days after at Gloucester, in
the most acute torments [x].
[FN [o] H. Hunting. lib. 5. p. 356. [p] W. Malmes. lib. 2. cap. 7.
[q] Ibid. [r] Wallingford, p. 542. [s] W. Malmes. lib. 2. cap. 7.
Osberne, p. 83, 105. M. West. p. 195, 196. [t] Wallingford, p. 542.
Alur. Beverl. p. 112. [u] Osberne, p. 84. Gervase, p. 1644. [w]
Hoveden, p. 425. [x] Osberne, p. 84. Gervase, p. 1645, 1646.]

The English, blinded with superstition, instead of being shocked with
this inhumanity, exclaimed that the misfortunes of Edwy and his
consort were a just judgment for their dissolute contempt of the
ecclesiastical statutes. They even proceeded to rebellion against
their sovereign; and having placed Edgar at their head, the younger
brother of Edwy, a boy of thirteen years