Dead Man's Plack and an Old Thorn: Chapter 1

Chapter 1

When, sitting at noon in the shade of an oak tree at Dead Man's Plack, I
beheld Edgar, I almost ceased to wonder at the miracle that had happened
in this war-mad, desolated England, where Saxon and Dane, like two
infuriated bull-dogs, were everlastingly at grips, striving to tear each
other's throats out, and deluging the country with blood; how, ceasing
from their strife, they had all at once agreed to live in peace and
unity side by side under the young king; and this seemingly unnatural
state of things endured even to the end of his life, on which account he
was called Edgar the Peaceful.

He was beautiful in person and had infinite charm, and these gifts,
together with his kingly qualities, which have won the admiration of all
men of all ages, endeared him to his people. He was but thirteen when he
came to be king of united England, and small for his age, but even in
these terrible times he was remarkable for his courage, both physical
and moral. Withal he had a subtle mind; indeed, I think he surpassed all
our kings of the past thousand years in combining so many excellent
qualities. His was the wisdom of the serpent combined with the
gentleness--I will not say of the dove, but rather of the cat, our
little tiger on the hearthrug, the most beautiful of four-footed things,
so lithe, so soft, of so affectionate a disposition, yet capable when
suddenly roused to anger of striking with lightning rapidity and rending
the offender's flesh with its cruel, unsheathed claws.

Consider the line he took, even as a boy! He recognised among all those
who surrounded him, in his priestly adviser, the one man of so great a
mind as to be capable of assisting him effectually in ruling so divided,
war-loving and revengeful a people, and he allowed him practically
unlimited power to do as he liked. He went even further by pretending to
fall in with Dunstan's ambitions of purging the Church of the order of
priests or half-priests, or canons, who were in possession of most of
the religious houses in England, and were priests that married wives and
owned lands and had great power. Against this monstrous state of things
Edgar rose up in his simulated wrath and cried out to Archbishop Dunstan
in a speech he delivered to sweep them away and purify the Church and
country from such a scandal!

But Edgar himself had a volcanic heart, and to witness it in full
eruption it was only necessary to convey to him the tidings of some
woman of a rare loveliness; and have her he would, in spite of all laws
human and divine. Thus when inflamed with passion for a beautiful nun he
did not hesitate to smash the gates of a convent to drag her forth and
forcibly make her his mistress. And this too was a dreadful scandal, but
no great pother could be made about it, seeing that Edgar was so
powerful a friend of the Church and of pure religion.

       *       *       *       *       *

Now all the foregoing is contained in the histories, but in what follows
I have for sole light and guide the vision that came to me at Dead Man's
Plack, and have only to add to this introductory note that Edgar at the
early age of twenty-two was a widower, having already had to wife
Ethelfled the Fair, who was famous for her beauty, and who died shortly
after giving birth to a child who lived to figure later in history as
one of England's many Edwards.

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