work of late origin and uncertain authority, the king's dying words to Edward his son are given. "Thus quoth Alfred: 'My dear son, sit thou now beside me, and I will deliver thee true instruction. My son, I feel that my hour is near, my face is pale, my days are nearly run. We soon must part. I shall to another world, and thou shalt be left alone with all my wealth. I pray thee, for thou art my dear child, strive to be a father and a lord to my people be thou the children's father and the widow's friend comfort thou the poor and shelter the weak: and with all thy might right that which is wrong.

"And, my son, govern thyself by law, then shalt the Lord love thee, and God above all things shall be thy reward. Call thou upon Him to advise thee in all thy need, and so shall He help thee the better to compass that which thou wouldest.''

As the end drew near, and he foresaw its coming, we can believe that the king spoke sometimes in this strain. But a speech of this kind is very much what would be made for Alfred, if not by him.

We may partly realise what this coming of the end meant to Alfred by recalling how the Christian hope was interpreted in the current poetry of Alfred's time. In a passage of rare beauty, Cynewulf describes the rest to which the Christian triumphantly passes:

"There is the angels' song; the bliss of the happy;
there is the gracious presence of the Lord;
Ꮓ

brighter than the sun, for all the blessed ones,

there is the love of the beloved; life without death's end;

a gladsome host of men; youth without age;

the glory of the heavenly chivalry; health without pain
for righteous doers; and for souls sublime

rest without toil: there is day without dark gloom,

ever gloriously bright; bliss without bale;
friendship 'twixt friends, for ever without feud;
peace without enmity, for the blest in heaven,

in the communion of saints. Hunger is not there nor thirst,
sleep nor grievous sickness; nor sun's heat,

nor cold, nor care, but there that blissful band

the fairest of all hosts, shall aye enjoy

their sovran's grace, and glory with their king."

In telling the end the English Chronicle is laconic and impressive by its simplicity. It begins the entry for the year 901 thus: "This year died Alfred, son of Ethelwulf, six days before the mass of All Saints. He was king over the whole English nation, except that part which was under the dominion of the Danes. And he held the kingdom one year and a half less than thirty years. 1 And then Edward his son succeeded to the kingdom."

1 There is some uncertainty as to the exact date. The Chronicle understates the length of his reign, which was within a month or two of thirty years. The year is variously given as 899, 900, and 901. See English Historical Review, 1898.

HYDE ABBEY CHURCH, ST BARTHOLOMEW'S, WINCHESTER

(The surviving representative of Alfred's foundation of New Minster, which became Hyde Abbey)

Chapter II

The Shadow of a Great Name

"All the Anglecyn turned to Alfred.”

"For good ye are and bad, and like to coins,
Some true, some light, but every one of you
Stamp'd with the image of the king."

Tennyson.

"A people is but the attempt of many
To rise to the completer life of one;
And those who live as models for the mass
Are singly of more value than they all."

Browning.

"At times the genius of a people seizes a man, severs him from the unnamed crowd, and by a stroke, often unconscious, fashions him into the ideal type of a whole epoch."-Sabatier.

"Extra invidiam neque extra gloriam."

ALFRED had hardly passed away when a halo of legend and reverent unrealities began to gather round his name. Asser's biography was possibly written in order to present his claims to be recognised as a saint; this motive would sufficiently account for the tincture of the supernatural with which he has flavoured his narrative. The conventional saint was bound either to work miracles or to have them worked for him. Had Rome