Dead Man's Plack and an Old Thorn: Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Now although King Edgar had dearly loved his wife, who was also beloved
by all his people on account of her sweet and gentle disposition as well
as of her exceeding beauty, it was not in his nature to brood long over
such a loss. He had too keen a zest for life and the many interests and
pleasures it had for him ever to become a melancholy man. It was a
delight to him to be king, and to perform all kingly duties and offices.
Also he was happy in his friends, especially in his favourite, the Earl
Athelwold, who was like him in character, a man after his own heart.
They were indeed like brothers, and some of those who surrounded the
king were not too well pleased to witness this close intimacy. Both were
handsome men, witty, of a genial disposition, yet under a light careless
manner brave and ardent, devoted to the pleasure of the chase and all
other pleasures, especially to those bestowed by golden Aphrodite, their
chosen saint, albeit her name did not figure in the Calendar.

Hence it was not strange, when certain reports of the wonderful beauty
of a woman in the West Country were brought to Edgar's ears that his
heart began to burn within him, and that by and by he opened himself to
his friend on the subject. He told Athelwold that he had discovered the
one woman in England fit to be Ethelfled's successor, and that he had
resolved to make her his queen although he had never seen her, since she
and her father had never been to court. That, however, would not deter
him; there was no other woman in the land whose claims were equal to
hers, seeing that she was the only daughter and part heiress of one of
the greatest men in the kingdom, Ongar, Earldoman of Devon and Somerset,
a man of vast possessions and great power. Yet all that was of less
account to him than her fame, her personal worth, since she was reputed
to be the most beautiful woman in the land. It was for her beauty that
he desired her, and being of an exceedingly impatient temper in any case
in which beauty in a woman was concerned, he desired his friend to
proceed at once to Earl Ongar in Devon with an offer of marriage to his
daughter, Elfrida, from the king.

Athelwold laughed at Edgar in this his most solemn and kingly mood, and
with a friend's privilege told him not to be so simple as to buy a pig
in a poke. The lady, he said, had not been to court, consequently she
had not been seen by those best able to judge of her reputed beauty. Her
fame rested wholly on the report of the people of her own country, who
were great as every one knew at blowing their own trumpets. Their red
and green county was England's paradise; their men the bravest and
handsomest and their women the most beautiful in the land. For his part
he believed there were as good men and as fair women in Mercia and East
Anglia as in the West. It would certainly be an awkward business if the
king found himself bound in honour to wed with a person he did not like.
Awkward because of her father's fierce pride and power. A better plan
would be to send some one he could trust not to make a mistake to find
out the truth of the report.

Edgar was pleased at his friend's wise caution, and praised him for his
candour, which was that of a true friend, and as he was the only man he
could thoroughly trust in such a matter he would send him. Accordingly,
Athelwold, still much amused at Edgar's sudden wish to make an offer of
marriage to a woman he had never seen, set out on his journey in great
state with many attendants as befitted his person and his mission, which
was ostensibly to bear greetings and loving messages from the king to
some of his most important subjects in the West Country.

In this way he travelled through Wilts, Somerset and Devon, and in due
time arrived at Earl Ongar's castle on the Exe.

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