He
stabbed his unsuspecting host in the back, left him dead on the field,
and rode back to the castle to declare his love to the suddenly-widowed
wife.
Elfrida had won the game for which she had so heartlessly played.
Ambition in her soul outweighed such love as she bore for Athelwold, and
she received with gracious welcome the king whose hands were still red
from the murder of her late spouse. No long time passed before Edgar and
Elfrida were publicly married, and the love romance which had
distinguished the life of the famed beauty of Devonshire reached its
consummation.
This romantic story has a sequel which tells still less favorably for
the Devonshire beauty. She had compassed the murder of her husband. It
was not her last crime. Edgar died when her son Ethelred was but seven
years of age. The king had left another son, Edward, by his first wife,
now fifteen years old. The ambitious woman plotted for the elevation of
her son to the throne, hoping, doubtless, herself to reign as regent.
The people favored Edward, as the rightful heir, and the nobility and
clergy, who feared the imperious temper of Elfrida, determined to thwart
her schemes. To put an end to the matter, Dunstan the monk, the
all-powerful king-maker of that epoch, had the young prince anointed and
crowned.
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