Ethelbert

“ Perhaps of all I had the most reason to think that ill was before the king, for Erling, though he said no more to me, was plainly full of bodings. And I have heard that other men dreamed dreams of terror and told them to one another. Only Ethelbert was always cheerful, singing as he rode and laughing with us, so that we ought to have been ashamed to be dull. ”

“ Ethelbert believed not in self-abnegation, but in self-expression. She believed it right to stand squarely on her own fair heights; that from there, with the hand next her heart placed in Jehovah’s, she could give her brain-inspired right hand to brother man and then lift!
“An Englishman dares be silent,” they say, and Ethelbert’s English quality was in the ascendant, when Reginald looked at her, wishing to know if those mother-eyes were backed by a brain filled with mother wit and wisdom. ”

“ A very good picture is given here showing the coronation of Ethelbert, copied from an old tintype now in the possession of an aged and somewhat childish family in Philadelphia who descended from Ethelbert and have made no effort to conceal it.
Here also the artist has shown us a graphic picture of Ethelbert supported by his celebrated ingrowing moustache receiving Augustine. They both seem pleased to form each other's acquaintance, and the greeting is a specially appetizing one to the true lover of Art for Art's sake. ”

“ So says Offa, half laughing, and yet with a doubt in his mind as to what the queen means. Then he adds, for her face is cloudy:
"Trouble not yourself over these matters which are of the years to come; today all is well."
"Ay, today. But when the time comes that Ethelbert knows his strength? I will mind you that East Anglia has had a king ere this nigh as powerful as yourself. He will have other teachers in king-craft besides ourselves."
"Why, you speak as if you thought there would be danger to our realm from Ethelbert in the days to come?" ”

“ Ethelbert seems to have married again after her death. She was the mother of Eadbald, who succeeded to the throne on Ethelbert's death, and of Ethelburga, who, in 625, was married to Edwin, King of Northumbria. As her son was unbaptized in 616, it is probable that she found considerable difficulty in promoting Christianity in her own family, or else that she died whilst her children were very young. ”

“ Sometimes I love to think that its end rested here and there on house or village or church which had been the happier for the bright presence of the king, and betimes I think that a strange fancy for a rough warrior like myself. Yet I had ridden with Ethelbert, and the thoughts he set in the minds of men are not as common thoughts. ”

“ And it chanced that Ethelbert glanced up at the battlements, and when he saw the maiden, with her flaxen locks and blue eyes, looking down at him, his heart leaped for joy, and as soon as he had greeted the Queen, and quaffed a cup of mead, he made his way up to where she was, and there they sat together, so the old books tell us, all the sunny afternoon, while the rest of the gallant company, King Offa, and Prince Ecgfrith, and all the knights and nobles, went a-hunting the wild wolves in the forest near by. ”

“ Count Venosta of his possessions, 172his mistress, and his niece; poor Edith of her liberty; and me of the happiness and tranquillity of my whole life!
Never had Count Ethelbert felt for me one spark of real affection. Even the passion, with which my person had inspired him, was subordinate to his desire of becoming master of my large possessions. No sooner was this point accomplished, no sooner had the daily sight of it deprived what little beauty was mine of the charm of novelty, than the continual presence of a virtuous wife appeared to him a check upon his pleasures. ”

“ The thing is not possible for me; it is folly."
"Folly, in truth, if you let Ethelbert keep you from the realm which waits you. Were he gone, there is not so much as an atheling who would make trouble there for you."
"Peace, I say. Ethelbert is my guest, and more than that. He shall go as he came--in honour. What may lie in the days to come, who shall know?"
"He who acts now shall see. Until the Norns set the day of doom for a man, he makes his own future. Surely they set his end on Ethelbert when he came here."
So she says in the old heathen way, but Offa does not note it. ”

“ Moreover Ethelbert, having ruled the kingdom with vigour and with mildness,111 paid the debt of nature after five years, and was buried at Sherborne.
In the year of our Lord 867, Ethelred, the son of Ethelwulf, obtained his paternal kingdom, and ruled it for the same number of years as his brothers. Surely it would be a pitiable and grievous destiny, that all of them should perish by an early death, unless it is, that in such a tempest of evils, these royal youths should prefer an honourable end to a painful government. ”

“ Ethelwulf, by his will, disposed of the kingdom of Kent to his second son, Ethelbert, and the kingdom of Wessex to Ethelbald, Ethelred, and Alfred, in order of seniority, and directed his heirs to maintain one poor person for every tithing in his hereditary lands. He died in 857, having reigned eighteen years, leaving behind him four sons and one daughter, who was married to Burhred, King of Mercia, and died at Pavia in 888. ”

“ Such, in rapid succession, were the Napoleonic thoughts of Ethelbert.
It was shortly after luncheon that he sought the room in which the dignified O.C. of the household of Paulings was wont to repose from his labours: and never more thoroughly than after luncheon.
Midday sleep is unknown to the young, at least after they are very, very young. Those of young Ethelbert's age have no use for it and cannot understand what a boon it may be to others. ”

“ Ethelbert king of Eastangles. After that Ethelbert king of Eastangles was dead, his sonne Ethelbert succéeded him, a prince of great towardnesse, and so vertuouslie brought vp by his fathers circumspect care and diligence, that he vtterlie abhorred vice, and delighted onelie in vertue and commendable exercises, for the better atteining to knowledge and vnderstanding of good sciences. There remaine manie sundrie saiengs & dooings of him, manifestlie bearing witnesse that there The saieng of king Ethelbert. could not be a man more honorable, thankefull, courteous or gentle. ”

“ Matth. West. Ethelbert. owne subiects. Then was Ethelbert, named also Edelred, the sonne of the foresaid Moll, made king of Northumberland, and in the fift yeare of his reigne, he was driuen out of his kingdome by two dukes of his countrie named Edelbald and Herebert, who mouing warre against him, had slaine first Aldulfe the sonne of Bosa the generall of his armie at Kingescliffe; and after Kinewulfe and Egga, other two of his dukes, at Helatherne in a sore foughten field: so that Ethelbert despairing of all recouerie, was constrained to get him out of the countrie. ”

“ My uncle and Ethelbert looked gloomily; my heart was heavy and sad: the fair Edith of Mayenfield alone exprest in words, what no one else was willing to declare to the other.
—“Oh! Heaven,” she cried at taking leave of him, who had till then been her protector, while she prest mine and Ethelbert’s hands fast together, between her own “unite these two noblest souls, with which you ever blest humanity: this is the best recompense for such generosity and such disinterested friendship, as I have experienced from them both!”—
102Edith’s expressive eyes were directed towards heaven ”

“ A year passed before Ethelbert yielded to the preaching of Augustine. But from the moment of his conversion the new faith advanced rapidly and the Kentish men crowded to baptism in the train of their King. The new religion was carried beyond the bounds of Kent by the supremacy which Ethelbert wielded over the neighboring kingdoms. Sebert, king of the East Saxons, received a bishop sent from Kent, and suffered him to build up again a Christian church in what was now his subject city of London, while the East Anglian king Redwald resolved to serve Christ and the older gods together. ”

“ There could be no sweeter maiden in all the land than she. I heard the same good words of her only brother, Ecgfrith, and I suppose that those two bore more likeness to their mighty father than to the queen.
All this half-stifled talk of untold ill from Quendritha lay heavy on my mind; and it came to me that Sighard was a true man, and that to him I might tell the tale Thrond told me. I must share that secret with some one who might, if he deemed it wise, warn King Ethelbert in such sort that he should beware of her, now and hereafter. ”

“ Augusine, thus strengthened by the confirmation of the blessed Father Gregory, returned to the work of the word of God, with the servants of Christ, and arrived in Britain. The powerful Ethelbert was at that time king of Kent; he had extended his dominions as far as the great river Humber, by which the Southern Saxons are divided from the Northern. ”

“ And, to complete his felicity, after a reign of thirty-three years, he died in extreme old age, which men generally reckon to be their greatest happiness, leaving his three children his heirs. These were Egbert, Ethelbert, and Alric, and they reigned twenty-three, eleven, and thirty-four years successively, without deviation from the excellent example and institutions of their father, except that Ethelbert, by the casual burning of Canterbury, and Alric, by an unsuccessful battle with the Mercians, considerably obscured the glory of their reigns. ”

“ Seeing that Carl the Great was at this time, and I suppose always will be, the model of what a king should be, Ethelbert had many things to ask me of him, and out of the hours which he spent in questioning me it came to pass that he took pleasure in my company at other times as well, treating me as a close comrade. That sort of thing is apt to be perilous in time, for it makes jealousies about a court if there is favour for one more than for another of the courtiers ”

“ O Ethelbert! I pray thee pity me!
This sight doth move me, e'en to agony.
Remove her hence; but O deal gently with her!
(Ethelbert endeavours again to lead her off, and the Ladies crowd about her. She is then carried out, and is heard to scream as they are carrying her.)
Ethw. (in great disorder.) Come, come away! we do but linger here.
(Elburga, who, since Ethwald's entering, has remained on the back ground, but agitated with passions, now advances angrily to him.) ”

“ Whether it was the sea air, or the draught, or both, the fit did not come when next it was due; and the seaman said I was cured, for the power of the ill was broken. He had time to say that again, for we had head winds the whole way across, and were nigh a week before we made the mouth of the great river which goes up to Norwich, where we hoped to find the king, Ethelbert. And by that time the Franks were themselves again, and my colour was coming back, and the joy of home was on me, and we were gay enough. ”

“ I am content to go your way and see what it is; but no man, if he is worth aught, will leave the gods of his fathers offhand, not even for the faith which is good for you and for Carl the king, and this king here who has death written on his handsome face."
"What mean you by that?" I asked, almost angrily. "On the face of Ethelbert?"
"Ay," he answered. "Cannot you see it?"
"Seldom have I seen a stronger or more healthy man! ”

“ On receiving notice of their arrival, he sent to desire that they would remain where they were until he should visit them; and within a few days he went to them. The meeting was held in the open air; for Ethelbert had a superstitious fear that they might do him some mischief by magical arts, if he were to trust himself under a roof with them. ”

“ In sable weeds that pilgrimage moves on,
Moves slowly like thy shadow, Ararat,
That eastward creeps. Phantom of glory dead!
Image of greatness that disdains to die!
Move Northward thou! Whate'er thy fates decreed,
At least that shadow shall be shadow of man,
And not of beast gold-weighted! On, thou Night
Cast by my heart! Thou too shalt meet thy morn!
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LEGENDS
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[Pg 13]
KING ETHELBERT OF KENT AND SAINT AUGUSTINE.
Ethelbert, King of Kent, converses first with his Pagan Thanes, and next with Saint Augustine, newly landed on the shores of Thanet Island. ”

“ To hinder Ethelbert's rash treacherous haste
From setting Edward free, I have done that
For which, tho' Ethwald thanks me, I must needs
On bended knee, for courtly pardon sue.
The queen I have address'd with humble suit
My cause to plead with her great Lord, and she
Will for the very pride of granting me
Her most magnificent and high protection
Be of our party, e'en if on her mind
No other motive press'd.
Hex. I doubt it not, and yet I fear her spirit,
Proud and aspiring, will desire to rule
More than befits our purpose.
Alwy. Fear it not. ”

“ King Ethelbert reioised at the conuersion of his people, howbeit he would not force anie man to be baptised, but onelie shewed by his behauiour, that he fauored those that beléeued more than other, as fellow citizens with him of the heauenlie kingdome: for he learned of them that had instructed him in the faith, that the obedience due to Christ ought not to be inforced, but to come of good will. Moreouer he prouided for Augustine and his fellowes a conuenient place for their habitation within the citie of Canturburie, and further gaue them Augustine ordeined archbishop of the English nation. ”

“ This prince, who equalled his father in military talents, though inferior to him in knowledge and erudition [g] , found, immediately on his accession, a specimen of that turbulent life to which all princes and even all individuals were exposed, in an age when men, less restrained by law or justice, and less occupied by industry, had no aliment for their inquietude, but wars, insurrections, convulsions, rapine, and depredation. Ethelwald, his cousin-german, son of King Ethelbert, the elder brother of Alfred, insisted on his preferable title [h] ”