"
"And become the scorn of Dunstan, and receive a retiring pension from
Edgar, and put your hand between his, kneeling humbly and saying 'I am
your man.'"
"No, no. Anything rather than that. Death first."
"All this may be averted with timely submission. Elgiva herself would
not counsel you to sacrifice all for her."
"O Athelwold. my father, the only one of my father's counsellors who has
been faithful to his firstborn, what can I do? She is dearer to me than
life."
"But not than honour. You have both erred, both disobeyed the law of the
Church, both forgotten the example due from those in high places."
"Tell Odo to enter," exclaimed Edwy.
The archbishop was close at hand, patiently awaiting the answer to his
demand, yet determined, in case of a refusal, to take his pastoral staff
in his hand and enter the council room, announced or not. A more
determined priest had never occupied the primacy, yet he was benevolent
as determined, and, as we have mentioned, was known as Odo the Good
amongst the poor. Stern and unyielding to the vices of the rich, he was
gentle as a parent to the repentant sinner.
He had pronounced, as we have seen, the lesser excommunication,[xxxi]
in consequence of Edwy's refusal to put away Elgiva, immediately after
the coronation; since which the guilty pair had never communicated at
the altar, or even attended mass. Their lives had been practically
irreligious, nay idolatrous, for they had been gods to each other.
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