George Manville Fenn

“ Father Swythe’s eyes were wet and his voice sounded hoarse and strange as he said sadly:
“You would not send me away, Ethelbald? I have always tried to do my duty to the young sons of my lord the King and have tried to make them grow into scholarly princes fit to rule the land.”
“Bah! We do not want to be scholarly!” cried Bald scornfully. “We want to learn to be brave soldiers, so that we can go forth and beat the Danes.”
“Yes,” said the monk sadly; “but, my boys, the warrior who’s a scholar as well is more brave and noble and merciful, and his name is one that lives longer in the land. ”

“ It was as peaceful there as it was soft and beautiful; for though news came from time to time of the cruel acts of the fierce Norsemen who had come across the sea in their great row and sailing galleys full of fighting-men, they were far away from the King’s home, so that Queen Osburga felt no anxiety about her boys being out on the downs at play, enjoying themselves and growing strong. ”

“ No one will think it strange after what has been told that the youngest of those four boys grew up under Swythe’s teaching wise and learned, and as brave as, or braver than, either of his three brothers, who, when at last King Ethelwulf died, succeeded in turn to be King of England. They each sat on the throne—Ethelbald, Ethelbert, and Ethelred; but their reigns were short, for in twenty years they too had passed away, to be succeeded by the strong, brave, and learned man who drove the Danish’ invaders finally from the shores of England, or forced them to become peaceful workers of the soil. ”

“ The hill-side sloped very steeply to the broad bed of willows and reeds far below, making the way very bad for so heavy and inactive a man. Worse still: walking over the short grass in the hot sun had made the bottoms of the monk’s sandals as slippery as glass, and so it was that before he had gone far down the slope he began to talk to himself, at first slowly—then quickly—then in a loud excited way—and lastly he uttered a shout and a cry for help. ”

“ I should strike him down with the axe, sir.”
“But you might kill him, Swythe.”
“And if I did, sir,” said the little monk fiercely, “it would be a good thing too; for these Norsemen are wicked pagans, come to kill and slay.”
“You see, we must have fighting-men, Swythe,” said the King; and then he turned to the Queen, who was listening to what they said.
“Hah! yes, sir,” said the monk, with a sigh. “I suppose we must; and it does my heart good to see how clever the young Princes are with sword and bow; but they spend too much time learning to fight. ”

“ Ethelbert says he will not study; Ethelred follows his example; and Alfred, of whom I expected better things, has just told me he does not mind a bit what I say, and that he will do just as he likes.”
“And so he shall!” said Bald boldly. “That is, he shall do as I like. Father has gone to fight the Danes, and while he’s away, as I am the eldest, I shall act in his place, and shall expect everyone to obey me as if I were King.”
“Oh, no, no, no,” cried Swythe, looking shocked. “Our dear lady Osburga is Queen, and everyone must obey her.” ”

“ Six long weary weeks had passed away since Ethelwulf had gone with his little army against the Danes, and only once had news been received, so that Queen Osburga’s face grew whiter, thinner, and more sad day by day, till one evening when, after a long hard day’s work with the monk, the pair went up to the top of the highest hill near to watch for the appearance of a messenger. Swythe could see no sign of anything.
“There is no news,” he said sadly. “Let us go back. The Queen is waiting to hear what we have found.” ”

“ The edges are all rugged and rough.”
“So they are!” replied Swythe, and, taking now a clean dry brush, he began to smoothe and dab and press gently till there was not a trace left of where the scraps of gold joined or lay one over the other, all becoming strong and perfect excepting the edges, where the gold lay loose, till, quite satisfied with his work, the monk passed his brush briskly over the letter, carrying off every scrap of gold outside the gummed letter, and leaving this clean, smooth, and glistening.
“Oh, Father Swythe,” cried Alfred, clapping his hands, “you are clever! ”

“ Can’t you help me out?”
“Yes, I’ll get you out,” cried Alfred, and he waded towards his unfortunate tutor, trampling the reeds down with his bare feet, but sinking in up to his knees at every step.
“Mind you don’t get into a hole, Fred!” cried Bald.
“Mind the big luces!” shouted Bert. “There’s a monster lives among those reeds.”
“Oh, they all swam away when Father Swythe fell in,” cried Red. “You have got to mind your toes. The big eels are down amongst the mud.”
The monk groaned at this, and raised his dripping hands above the water, to grasp with each a handful of reeds. ”

“ Now,” he said, “I’m going to mix this up with gum; and then we’ll paint all the back of the parchment behind the big letter red.”
Alfred watched the monk’s clever touches with the point of his little brush till there was a great square patch upon which the letter seemed to stand.
“Beautiful!” cried Alfred. “Now it’s done!”
“Oh, no,” said Swythe; “that’s the beginning! Now we’ll paint the scroll.”
“Why do you say we” said the boy. “It is you.”
“It’s we, because you are helping me,” said the monk. “Very soon you will be doing letters like this, and then I shall help you.” ”

“ But the only mowing that had been done to that grass was by the cropping teeth of the many flocks of sheep whose fleeces dotted the downs with soft white where they nibbled away, watched by the shepherds in their long smock frocks with turn-down collars and pleatings and gatherings on breast and back, and slit up at the sides from the bottom so as to give the men’s legs room to move freely when they ran after a restive sheep to hook him with the long crook they carried and bring him kicking and struggling by hook or by crook to the grass. ”

“ The boy eagerly took hold of the monk’s hand, and they were soon seated at the little table in Swythe’s room, with the light shining full upon the slate slab, the pebble grinder, and the black patch.
“You said that was ink yesterday,” said the boy, as Swythe gave the pebble a few turns round, and then looked to see if the ink was of the right thickness, which it was not, so a feather was dipped in a water-jug, and a few drops allowed to fall upon the black patch.
“There,” said Swythe, “a good writer makes all his own ink. Now you grind that up till it is well mixed. Gently,” cried Swythe ”

“ The men-folk had nearly all departed from the place, and there was no one to exercise authority, so, as soon as the four boys had recovered from their disappointment at not being allowed to go with the little army their father led, they began to look upon it as a free and jovial time in which they could do whatever pleased them most, and this they did to such an extent that poor Swythe’s face became full of lines, and after trying in vain to make his pupils continue their studies, and putting up with a great amount of disobedience on their part, he began to reproach them in his mild way. ”

“ Year after year the scouring of that horse, as it is called, takes place, when men go and clear out the brown earth that has crumbled through frost and rain into the ditch-like lines which mark the horse’s shape on the green hill-side, and make it stand out white and clear as ever. ”

“ Alfred said nothing; he was watching the monk going slowly and sadly away, and somehow the little figure did not look comic to him then, even if it was short and plump and round.
“Where’s Fred?” cried Bald the next minute, when the boys were getting their bows and quivers.
His brothers could not tell him where Alfred was; so after a few moments pause, Ethelbald said:
“Never mind: let’s go without him. Hers too young and weak to do what we do. Let him stay behind and learn Latin with old Swythe.”
“He did go out after him,” said Bert. ”

“ If they would only spend half the time learning with me!”
“Yes, it would be good,” said Queen Osburga sadly.
“But they don’t,” continued the monk. “There’s only young Alured—Alfred, as you call him—who will learn at all, and he is nearly as idle as his brothers.”
“You cannot say that they are idle,” said the Queen, smiling gently.
“Well, perhaps not idle, my daughter,” said the monk, shaking his head, “because they do work hard to learn what Jarl Cerda teaches them.”
“Yes,” said King Ethelwulf, “they are apt to learn how to fight ”

“ You are the youngest and least to blame. Still, I had looked for better things of you all than that I should hear that you openly defy Father Swythe, and have made him come to me to say that he can do no more, and to ask to be dismissed. ”

“ The little group now separated, for the King and Queen had many duties to perform in connection with state affairs, and the little monk had to prepare the lessons for the boys.
And that’s how matters were on that bright sunny day when King Ethelwulf’s sons lay out on the steep hill-side—Bald, Bert, Red, and Fred—four as crisp and tongue-tripping names as four bright Saxon English boys could own, but each with the addition of Athel or Ethel before, except the youngest, in whose name it shortened into Al; and these were their titles, because each was a Prince.
Chapter Two. “Boys will be Boys.” ”

“ One of the boys’ amusements had been for one to shoot an arrow as high up as he could, and for his brothers to follow and try and hit the first one sent. Fine practice this in marksmanship, but unsatisfactory and tiring after a few tries, for the arrows flew far, and this time they had brought no young serfs’ sons to retrieve the arrows, one of which took a long time to find. ”

“ Then the tuft of badger’s hair was held by its tied end and passed through the monk’s lips so as to bring the hairs together to a point, which was carefully pushed into the most open part of the quill and screwed round till the whole of the tuft was inside. Then a thrust with a thin piece of wood sent the hairs right through, all but the tied-up ends; and Swythe held his work up in triumph—a complete little paint-brush.
“How clever!” cried the boy eagerly ”

“ The next minute the boys began to run, for they saw that the object first seen was a mounted man, and what followed the heads of spears borne by a party of quite a hundred men, whose leader had been seen first owing to his being mounted upon an active little horse. ”