Brithric was a youth of a specious and deceitful character: it was his
practice to dissemble his real sentiments, and to recommend himself by
flattering speeches to the favor of his superiors. By constantly
addressing Prince Edwin in the language of adulation, he succeeded in
rendering his company very agreeable to him; for the prince's besetting
sin was vanity, and the artful Brithric was only too well skilled in
perceiving and taking advantage of the weak points of others.
Wilfrid beheld this growing intimacy with pain; nor did he attempt to
conceal his uneasiness whenever the prince spoke to him on the subject
of his evident dislike of the society of Brithric. "I do not respect
Brithric, my lord," replied Wilfrid; "and where esteem is wanting,
there can be no true grounds for forming friendships."
"And what are your reasons, Wilfrid, for denying your esteem to
Brithric?" said the prince. "He is obliging, and often says very
agreeable things to you."
"It costs more to win my esteem than a few unmeaning compliments, which
Brithric is accustomed to pay to every one with whom he is desirous of
carrying his point," said Wilfrid.
"And what should Brithric, who is the heir of the richest thane in my
brother's court, want to gain of a poor, landless orphan who owes his
sustenance and education to the compassion of King Athelstane?"
retorted the prince, angrily.
The pale cheek of Wilfrid flushed with unwonted crimson at this
unexpected taunt from the lips of his young lord. It was with
difficulty that he restrained the tears which filled his eyes from
overflowing, but turning meekly away, he said--
"It is the first time the Atheling has condescended to upbraid his page
with the bounty of his royal brother, the generous Athelstane, whom may
heaven long preserve and bless."
"It is good policy, methinks, for the son of a traitor to speak loudly
of his loyalty to the mighty Athelstane," said Brithric, who, having
entered unperceived, was listening to this conversation.
"Nay, Brithric," said the prince, "Wilfrid could not help his father's
fault; though the remembrance of his crime and punishment ought to
restrain him from offering his opinion too boldly, when speaking of the
friends of his lord."
"Let every one be judged by his own deeds," replied Wilfrid. "My
unfortunate parent offended against the laws of his country, and has
suffered the penalty decreed to those who do so by the loss of life and
forfeiture of lands. As a further punishment, I, his only child, who
was born the heir of a fair patrimony, am reared in a state of
servitude and sorrow, and am doomed not only to mourn my early
bereavement of a father's care and my hard reverse of fortune, but to
endure the taunts of those who are unkind enough to reproach me with
the sore calamities which, without any fault of mine, have fallen upon
my youthful head."
The voice of Wilfrid failed him as he concluded, and he burst into a
flood of tears.
The heart of Prince Edwin smote him for the pain he had inflicted upon
his faithful page; but he was too proud to acknowledge his fault. He
could not, however, bear to look upon his tears; so he left him to
indulge them in solitude, and, taking the ready arm of Brithric,
strolled into the archery ground to amuse himself by shooting at a mark.
His hand was unsteady and his aim uncertain that day, yet Brithric's
voice was louder than ever in praising the skill of the Atheling. The
rest of the royal wards took their cue from the bold flatterer, and
addressed to the prince the most extravagant compliments every time his
arrow came near the mark, which they all purposely abstained from
hitting.
At that moment the pale, sorrowful Wilfrid crossed the ground; but,
wishing to escape the attention of the joyous group, he kept at a
distance. The prince, however, observed him, and willing to obliterate
the remembrance of his late unkindness, called to him in a lively
voice: "Come hither, Wilfrid," said he, "and tell me if you think you
could send an arrow nearer to yonder mark than I have done."
"Certainly," replied Wilfrid, "or I should prove myself but a bad
archer."
The group of youthful flatterers, who surrounded the heir of the
throne, smiled contemptuously at the unguarded sincerity of the page in
speaking the truth thus openly and plainly to his lord.
"Wilfrid, if we may believe his own testimony, is not only wiser and
better than any of the servants of the Atheling," said Brithric
scornfully, "but excels even the royal Atheling himself, in all the
exercises of princely skill."
"He has yet to prove his boast," replied the prince, coloring with
suppressed anger; "but give him his bow, Brithric," continued he, "that
we may all have the advantage of taking a lesson from so peerless an
archer."
"It is far from my wish presumptuously to compete with my lord,"
replied Wilfrid, calmly rejecting the bow.
"He has boasted that which he cannot perform," said Brithric, with an
insulting laugh.
"You are welcome to that opinion, Brithric, if it so please you," said
Wilfrid, turning about to quit the ground.
"Nay," cried the prince, "you go not till you have made good your
boast, young sir, by sending an arrow nearer to the mark than mine."
"Ay, royal Atheling," shouted the company, "compel the vaunter to show
us a sample of his skill."
"Rather, let my lord, the Atheling, try his own skill once more," said
Wilfrid; "he can hit the mark himself, if he will."
Prince Edwin bent his bow, and this time the arrow entered the centre
of the target. The ground rang with the plaudits of the spectators.
"Let us see now if Wilfrid, the son of Cendric, the traitor, can equal
the Atheling's shot," shouted Brithric.
"Shoot, Wilfrid, shoot!" cried more than twenty voices among the royal
wards.
"I have no wish to bend the bow to-day," said Wilfrid.
"Because you know that you must expose yourself to contempt by failing
to make your vaunt good," said Brithric; "but you shall not escape thus
lightly."
"Nothing but the express command of the prince, my master, will induce
me to bend my bow to-day," said Wilfrid.
"Wilfrid, son of Cendric, I, Edwin Atheling, command thee to shoot at
yonder mark," said the prince.
Wilfrid bowed his head in obedience to the mandate. He fitted the
arrow to the string, and stepping a pace backward, took his aim and
bent the bow. The arrow flew unerringly, and cleft in twain that of
Prince Edwin which already remained fixed in the centre of the mark.
This feat of skillful archery on the part of the page called forth no
shout, nor even a word of applause, from the partial group of
flatterers, who had so loudly commended the Atheling's less successful
shots. Their silence, however, was best pleasing to the modest
Wilfrid, who, without so much as casting a single triumphant glance
upon those who had insulted and reviled him, dropped his bow upon the
earth, and, bowing to his royal master, retired from the scene without
uttering a syllable.
From that day there was a visible change in the manners of the Atheling
toward his page, for his vanity had been piqued by this trifling
circumstance, of which the artful Brithric took advantage to irritate
his mind against Wilfrid. He now addressed him only in the language of
imperious command, and not unfrequently treated him with personal
indignity.
Wilfrid felt these things very acutely, and the more so because the
former kindness of his youthful lord had won his earliest affections.
But he now bore all his capricious changes of temper with meekness. It
was only in his unrestrained confidence with his widowed mother that he
ever uttered a complaint of the young Atheling, and then he spoke of
him in sorrow, not in anger; for he rightly attributed much of Prince
Edwin's unamiable conduct to the pernicious influence which the artful
Brithric had, through flattery, obtained over his mind.
"Patience, my son," would the widowed Ermengarde say in those moments
when Wilfrid sought relief by venting his anguish in tears on the bosom
of his tender mother, "patience, my son; true greatness is shown most
especially in enduring with magnanimity the crosses and trials which
are of every-day occurence. Let sorrow, sickness, or any other
adversity touch Prince Edwin, and he will learn the difference between
a true friend and a false flatterer. In due time, your worth will be
proved, and your victory will be a glorious one: for it will be the
triumph of virtue!"