"
"Only so far as this, that all might have been prevented hadst thou
received Wilfred as a brother, for thou didst drive him to the
woods--according to thine own account. But depend upon it, there is
more behind. A brave youth like Wilfred would not have fled simply
for fear of the combat, nor would one who loved his own people, as
your story proves, have connived at the burning of an English
monastery--monks and all. Nay, my son, the mystery is not solved
yet; in God's own time it will be, and depend upon it, there will
be much to forgive on both sides. Think of this when thou repeatest
thy paternoster tonight; for the present we will close this
conference."
CHAPTER XX. THE MESSENGER FROM THE CAMP OF REFUGE.
A fortnight only had passed since the scenes described in our last
chapter, and we must again take our readers to Aescendune.
It was the hour of the evening meal in the castle hall where so
lately Hugo sat in his pride, and in his place sat his youthful
rival, Wilfred.
Scarcely of age, the vicissitudes of his life had made a man of him
before his time, and a stranger would have credited him with many
more years than he really possessed. His face was bronzed with the
sun, and his features had assumed all the appearance of early
manhood, while there was a gravity in his expression befitting a
born leader of men, such as his warlike grandfather, Alfgar, had
been in the old Danish wars sixty years earlier.
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