"
"Would I had a scorpion to chastise you! This is unbearable.
"My lords and counsellors, have you not a word to say for me?"
"Alas!" said Athelwold, "it is all too true; but give up Elgiva now, and
all will be well!"
"It will be at least the beginning of reformation," said Odo.
"And the end, I suppose," said Edwy, "will be that I shall shave my head
like a monk, banquet sumptuously upon herbs and water, spend
three-fourths of the day singing psalms through my nose, wear a hair
shirt, look as starved as a weasel, and at last, after sundry combats
with the devil, pinch his nose, and go off to heaven in all the odour of
sanctity. Go and preach all this to Edgar; I am not fool enough to
listen to it. You have got him to be your obedient slave and vassal; you
have bought him, body and soul, and the price has been Mercia, and now
you want to add Wessex. Well, I wish you joy of him, and him of you all;
for my part, if I could do it, I would restore the worship of Odin and
Thor, and offer you priests as bloody sacrifices to him: I would!"
"Peace, my lord and king! peace! this is horrible." said Athelwold.
"Horrible!" said another. "He is possessed. My lord Odo, you had better
exorcise him."
But Edwy had given way--he was young--and burst into a passionate
fit of weeping, his royal dignity all forgotten.
"Give him time! give him time, father!" said they all.
"One day; he must then submit, or I must do my duty; I have no choice--
none," replied the archbishop.
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