Sadly his vassals received the summons, for each loved him as his own
father, and not one lurked behind. The king gave them a glad welcome,
but they could not forbear shedding tears when they saw his weakness and
heard his feeble voice. Athelwold let them have their way a little
while, and then he said:

'I am dying, as you see, and I have sent for you hither, to ask you all
to tell me which of you will best guard my daughter when I am dead, till
she has come to years when she can guard herself.'

And they answered as one man:

'Earl Godrich of Cornwall.'

Then the king bade the priest bring the holy vessels, and earl Godrich
swore on them that he would be faithful and true in peace and in war to
Goldborough; and, further, that he would seek out a man who was better
and fairer and stronger than all others to be her husband, so that the
land might have peace, as in the days of Athelwold.

After the earl had sworn to fulfil what the king required of him,
Athelwold made his will, and gave England into the keeping of Godrich.
This done, he lay back in his bed, and that same morning he died in the
arms of his daughter.

But bad indeed was the choice which king Athelwold's vassals had made
when they proclaimed earl Godrich as the fittest guardian for the young
princess. In the beginning, indeed, while Goldborough was still a child,
everything went smoothly. The earl appointed justices and sheriffs to
carry out the laws, and, though he took more heed to gather riches for
himself than to protect his people, yet on the whole he governed well.

Thus six years passed away, and Goldborough was twenty years old. She
had lived far away from the castle of Winchester, and had never seen her
guardian since the day that her father had been buried, and, for his
part, he had hardly remembered her, he was so busy making laws and
amassing treasures. Still, other people recollected Goldborough, if he
did not, and one Eastertide, when the princess's twentieth birthday was
at hand, an old pilgrim chanced to stop at Winchester on his way to
Canterbury. He had but lately passed through the town where Goldborough
was living, and had many tales to tell of her fair and gracious ways.

Godrich let him talk, but his face was gloomy and he answered nought.
But, though his tongue was silent, his heart was base and his thoughts
were evil.

'Have I toiled all these years for nothing?' he said to himself, 'and
shall England be ruled by a fool