s very foundation--the act of homage, or of
"becoming your man,"--was brought by the Saxons and Angles from their
German home. The lord was the protector of the vassal, but the vassal
was bound to attend his feudal superior both in peace and war.

So imperative was this obligation, that a vassal who abandoned his lord
in the field of battle was liable to the death of a traitor.

Therefore Edwy soon found himself at the head of a compact body of ten
thousand men, all bound to stand by him to death. But there was one very
disheartening circumstance, which attracted notice. No volunteers joined
the little army, although a royal proclamation had promised lands from
the territories of the rebels to each successful combatant in the cause
of Edwy and Elgiva.

The fear of the Church hung on all, the conviction that the law of both
Church and State had been broken by the young king; the universal belief
in the sanctity of Dunstan, and in the true patriotism of Odo whom they
called "the good;" the thoughtless misgovernment since the wiser
counsellors had dispersed--all these things weakened the hearts of the
followers of Edwy.

There was therefore but little enthusiasm when the inhabitants saw the
soldiers of the king march out by the Watling Street, and the soldiers
themselves looked dispirited.

It was early dawn on the second day from the feast that the departure
took place. Cynewulf, a valiant Earl of Wessex, was the real commander;
nominally, Edwy commanded in person, and Elfric rode out of London by
his side. Redwald's rank would not have entitled him to the chief command.

Passing through the environs of the city, they gained the open country,
and marched steadily along the causeway the Romans had so firmly laid,
until they reached Verulam or St. Alban's, where they passed the night.
It excited great discontent amongst the inhabitants that Edwy did not
visit the shrine of the saint, the glory of their town; and his
departure again took place amidst gloomy silence.

They were now about to cross the frontier and enter Mercia, then in many
respects an independent state; governed, it might be, by the same
monarch and Witan as Wessex, even as Scotland and England are governed
by the same sovereign and Parliament, yet retaining like them its own
peculiar code of laws in many respects.

And now Mercia had sternly refused to be governed any longer by the
"enemy of the Church," and chose the Etheling, Edgar, to be its king.