Thy sister Edith is my beloved wife,
and in this boy Norman and Englishman meet together, the merits of
each combined, the faults obliterated, if a father may be trusted."
And the friends, who once were foes, entered the tent of Etienne.
CHAPTER XXVIII. AESCENDUNE ONCE MORE.
"Last scene of all,
Which ends this strange eventful history."
Once more we must ask our readers to accompany us to Aescendune--it
is for the last time--to witness the final scenes recorded in these
veracious Chronicles.
Thirty-four years have passed since the battle of Hastings; and our
tale has now advanced to the autumn of the last year of the
eleventh century.
The face of the country is little altered since we last beheld it,
so far as the works of God are concerned: the woods, His first
temples, and the everlasting hills stand, as when Elfric and his
brother hunted therein with Prince Edwy, or the sainted Bertric
suffered martyrdom in the recesses of the forest, at the hands of
the ruthless Danes {xxix}.
But the works of man are more transitory, and in them there is a
great change. The Norman castle rebuilt by Etienne stands where
erst stood the Anglo-Saxon hall; the new Priory of St. Wilfred's
resembles that of St. Denys in architecture, although it bears the
name of the old English saint, to whose honour the first sacred
pile, erected by Offa of Aescendune was dedicated; the houses which
dot the scene are of a more substantial character; stone is
superseding wood.
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