CHAPTER VII
THE END
The day had been passed delightfully, hunting in the forests at thebases of Cheviot Hill and Yeavering Bell. The royal party had assembledat a trysting-place for an early supper, and was now riding home toAdgefrin. Edwin looked splendid in his hunting-dress, with his goldenlocks falling from a light cap, and his fair beard resting on thedarker leathern coat. He was superbly mounted, and in one hand he helda hunting-horn. His eyes brightened with pride as he glanced at hisgallant young sons, Offrid and Eadfrid. Close behind him rode Osric andhis young son Oswin. Then followed Coelred, Porlor, and Godric, withFroda and other faithful retainers bringing up the rear. Alas! it wasthe good King's last hour of pleasure. The joyous laughter of the youngAthelings rang through the glades as the cavalcade reached home.
Sivel was at the gate, his face full of anxiety, his horse covered withfoam and ready to drop. He brought certain news that Penda, the Kingof Mercia, was marching across the country of the Gainas with a largearmy, and had given a defiant answer to a messenger who had been sentto ask the cause of his invasion. In a few days he would be on the Don.Cadwalla was known to have an equally large force in motion, and Bassuswas sending out scouts to ascertain his position day by day. He hadalso summoned the Deiran tribes to meet at York.
Edwin sorrowfully remembered the timely warning of his faithfulgeneral. Fresh horses were ordered, and the King set out at once,accompanied by the four paladins and his two sons. Osric undertook toguard the Queen, Paulinus, and the children, and to escort them asquickly as possible to Aldby. The King reached York in the first weekof October 633. Still worse news awaited him. Cadwalla, with an immensearmy, had crossed the moors from Chester, and was marching rapidly withthe apparent object of forming a junction with Penda. In a hurriedconsultation Bassus pointed out that every hour was of moment, as theonly hope was in engaging the two armies in detail, before they werein touch of each other. But the Northumbrian force was very small, andthere was no time to wait for reinforcements. Bassus wished to attendon the King's person, but Edwin insisted that he must remain at York."If anything happens to me," he said, "who is to guard my wife andchildren, who is to save the kingdom if you fall by my side?" Bassusreluctantly yielded. He was to strive to form a second army at York,and guard the Queen.
Edwin left York with a small but valiant force, commanded by himselfin person, Coelred, Porlor, Godric, Sivel, the two Athelings, and theprincipal thegns of Deira. He felt confident that he could disposeof Penda if he could engage him before the arrival of Cadwalla. Alldepended upon that. At the ford of Nehalennia loyal old Saebald joinedthe King with his Billingas. But news also came that Cadwalla wasalready advancing down the valley of the Calder. Edwin increased therapidity of his marches to the Don.
Hatfield Chase was a vast extent of lake and morass on the lowercourse of the Don, overgrown with reeds and other water plants, anddotted with islands covered with trees and frequented by deer in greatnumbers. Penda led his army across this labyrinth, from island toisland, wading and sometimes swimming. He had just escaped from hisdifficulties and drawn up the forces of Mercia on the firm land, whenthe well-marshalled army of Edwin came in sight. They passed the nightfacing each other, with the camp fires of both sides visible, and nextmorning they joined battle.
Edwin rose at dawn and called his chiefs around him. "We must beat theMercians," he said, "before our other enemies arrive, or we are lost.It is in the hands of God. If it is His will I will die on this fieldfighting for the right. But keep the men in good heart. Friends andbrothers, never in the world's history had king such faithful servants!Living or dying, our hopes, our aims, are one. True and loyal friends,we stand or fall together." He embraced his sons, his four survivingpaladins, and the venerable Saebald, whose hair was now white withage. He was seventy-three. They then all knelt down and received thesacrament from James the Deacon, who offered up prayers for the goodmen and true who were to fight that day in a righteous cause. It wasthe morning of the 14th of October 633.
Edwin's army was in three divisions. He entrusted the right to Godricand Saebald, with his son Offrid. Porlor and Eadfrid commanded theleft. The King and Coelred were in the centre. Sivel was well mounted,and undertook to bring news to the King from the two wings and to carryorders. The whole line advanced bravely to the attack, the numbers ofthe two armies being about equal, but Penda had his back to the swamps.Both sides fought most valiantly. At last the Mercians began to giveway. Porlor had actually driven a large body into the swamps. The dayappeared to be won. At this critical moment Sivel galloped up to reportthat the Welshmen under Cadwalla were in sight, and rushing down uponthe rear of the English right flank in overwhelming numbers. Edwin wasobliged to order two-thirds of his force, under Godric and Saebald, toface round and advance to meet the Welsh. Before leaving with theseorders, Coelred called Sivel aside, and entreated him, by their sacredfriendship, to save his life. "One of us must survive," he said. "Thesafety of the widows and children will be in your keeping. My Sivel,you must live on." They pressed each other's hands, and Sivel gallopedoff with his orders.
Penda now saw that the force opposed to him was so weakened that itwas less than half his own strength. He rallied his men, and a terribleslaughter commenced. The Deirans fell where they stood. None fled.There was not a man who was not ready to die for his beloved King.Porlor had closed up from the left, and the brothers were now fightingby the side of Edwin. At this moment Froda arrived with the appallingnews that Godric, Saebald and his sons, and Offrid had all been slain,and that the right wing was falling back, overwhelmed by numbers."Froda, my true friend," said Coelred, "go at speed to the Humber bank,where you will find one of my boats. Hurry to Hemingborough and toStillingfleet. Tell the ladies to fly with the children to Driffield inthe Wolds. Then speed to York and announce the tidings to Bassus thatall is lost. Remember that, when we are dead, Froda the son of Tanwinis chief of the Stillingas." The young man knelt down, kissed the handsof the King, of Coelred, and Porlor, then galloped off in the directionof the Humber.
The very thick of the fight now centred round the King and his twopaladins. Their brave men had fallen in heaps. Not one yielded an inchof ground. Edwin retreated fighting until he had a bank about sixfeet high, covered with tangled briers, at his back. Here he made hislast stand. He wielded his sword like a true Viking, but at length aspear-thrust dealt him a mortal wound. He fell. Coelred and Porlornow stood over the body of their King--their backs to the bank, andhalf surrounded by the foe. It was not the Berserker rage that flashedfrom their eyes, yet something as terrible. It was the righteous wrathof brave men who foresee the ruin of a great cause. Their blows weredealt with deadly force and with deadly skill. Before the death-dealingstrokes their assailants recoiled and paused more than once. In suchmoments the brothers clasped hands and exchanged a few words. Thenagain their swords flashed right and left with lightning speed, dealingdeath around. Penda himself had been carried away, sorely wounded.There was a semicircle of Mercian dead round the hero brothers, asthey protected the body of their King. Another pause. "The Valkyriehave chosen us at last, my Porlor," said Coelred. "They are carryingus away." "To Christ," continued Porlor. Then they both quoted thewords of Alca spoken long ago when they were little boys. "We fall inbattle, fighting in a righteous cause." These were their last words.There were loud yells and shouts, and an irresistible rush of spearmen,for no sword could touch them. They both fell dead across the bodyof the King, which they had defended so long and so valiantly. Theirhands were clasped, their faces turned to heaven. The battle sweptaway in another direction, and there was silence. Brambles and ivy andthe straggling branch of an overhanging yew tree, through which thesunbeams found their way in flickering light, shaded the mortal remainsof three heroes, three among the chief makers of England.
King Edwin. Coelred, and Porlor Slain]
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"All is lost!" Froda had realised the fears of Bassus. No hope.Few men had come t
o his standard. The time was too short. There wasno choice for the Queen but immediate flight. The three widows atHemingborough and Stillingfleet had escaped, with the children, to thefortified post of Driffield on the Wolds. Bassus hastily got one ofCoelred's finest vessels ready, and the Queen, with the three children,Eanflaed, Wuscfrea, and Iffi, came from Aldby. Paulinus was at York,and said that he would accompany the Queen to Kent. "Are you not Bishopof York?" said Bassus with surprise. "Is not your duty here? The Queenis safe with me." "My duty is to accompany the Queen," replied York'sfirst bishop, who wanted a safer see. "Coward!" muttered Bassus. "Hedeserts at the first hint of danger, like the monks sent by Gregory,like Mellitus and Justus when they ran away from Canterbury." Unknownto Bassus, Edwin's golden chalice and cross belonging to the church atYork were appropriated by Paulinus, who wished to make his appearancein Kent more acceptable by the presentation of these treasures.Cadwalla would scarcely have perpetrated such an act as this. SoEthelburga and her children, and her timid bishop, sailed for Kentunder the protection of Bassus.
They arrived safely in Kent, where Ethelburga was affectionatelyreceived by her brother King Eadbald, and she brought up her daughterEanflaed at Canterbury. But she could not feel that the boys were safewhile they remained in England. She persuaded Bassus to take Wuscfreaand Iffi to Paris, and to put them under the protection of her cousinKing Dagobert. They both died in infancy, and were buried with thehonours due to royal children, it is believed at St. Denis. Bassus issupposed to have then returned to his native country, and to have diedat Rome full of years, fondly cherishing to the last the memory of hisbeloved friend Lilla.
The saddest thing of all was the fate of Edwin's two brave young sons.The body of Offrid was never found. Eadfrid was taken prisoner, andshortly afterwards was basely murdered by his cousin Penda.
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In the second night after the battle three lights might have beenseen flickering over the ghastly field. One came from a lantern heldby Wiglaf, Godric's man, who was searching for the body of his master,accompanied by the two sons of that valiant paladin. They found it, andcarried it to his home, where it was buried amidst fruit trees, on thesite on which afterwards rose the church of East Markham. The othertwo lights were carried by Sivel and the Deacon James. They found theprecious remains lying as they fell under the yew tree. Long they gazedon those peerless forms. "When will God send us their equals?" sighedSivel. "It must be long, alas!" assented the good Deacon. "Perhaps inHis own good time men like them may arise again." The three bodieswere borne away to the Humber by many loving hands, and placed in aboat. Proceeding up the Ouse, the boat was met opposite to Acaster byFroda and a few surviving Stillingas. The bodies of Coelred and Porlorwere handed over to them, and were borne slowly to Stillingfleet,where they were interred by the side of Shuprak on the spot they hadloved so well. The Deacon James performed the funeral service, andafterwards a tumulus was raised over their grave. Sivel then went toYork with the body of the King. Bassus and Ethelburga had alreadydeparted. The head of Edwin the Great was interred under the porch ofhis unfinished church. His body was borne to Aldby, and buried by theside of his sister Alca. Long afterwards it was removed to Whitby byhis grand-daughter the Abbess Elflaed.
The work of Edwin and his paladins seemed to be all undone. But it wasnot so. The good seed was sown. Northumbria flourished wonderfully fornearly a century through the initiative given to progress by Edwin'sbrilliant administration, and her Kings were Bretwaldas of Britain.A great calamity swept over the land, a storm beat down the ripeninggrains, but they rose again, bright and golden, and the sowers had notlived in vain.
Through labour to rest, Through combat to victory.
THOMAS A KEMPIS.
The Paladins of Edwin the Great Page 22