“We have messengers from all parts of Wessex, from Kent, from Essex, from Sussex, and they all unite in their demand that you should submit to the Church, and put away (forgive me for repeating their words) your concubine.”
“Concubine!” said Edwy, and his cheek flushed, “she is my wife and your queen.”
“Pardon me, my liege, I did not make the word my own.”
“You should not have dared to repeat it.”
“If I dare, my lord, it is for your sake, and for our country, which is dear to us all. Not an Englishman will acknowledge that your connection is lawful; from Exeter to Canterbury the cry is the same—‘Let him renounce Elgiva, and we will obey him; but we will not serve a king who does not obey the voice of the Church or the laws of the land.’”
“Laws of the land! The king is above the laws.”
“Nay, my lord, he is bound to set the first example of obedience, chief in that as in all things; an example to his people. Remember, my lord, your coronation oath taken at Kingston three years ago.”
Edwy flushed. “Is this a subject’s language?”
“It is the language of one who loves his king too well to flatter him.”
At this moment an usher of the court knocked at the door, and obtaining permission to enter, stated that Archbishop Odo had arrived, and demanded admission to the council.
“My liege,” exclaimed Athelwold, the old grey-headed counsellor we have mentioned, “permit one who loves you, as he loved your revered father, to entreat you to cease from this hopeless resistance. If you refuse to see him you are no longer a king.”
“And become the scorn of Dunstan, and receive a retiring pension from Edgar, and put your hand between his, kneeling humbly and saying ‘I am your man.’”
“No, no. Anything rather than that. Death first.”
“All this may be averted with timely submission. Elgiva herself would not counsel you to sacrifice all for her.”
“O Athelwold, my father, the only one of my father’s counsellors who has been faithful to his firstborn, what can I do? She is dearer to me than life.”
“But not than honour. You have both erred, both disobeyed the law of the Church, both forgotten the example due from those in high places.”
The archbishop was close at hand, patiently awaiting the answer to his demand, yet determined, in case of a refusal, to take his pastoral staff in his hand and enter the council room, announced or not. A more determined priest had never occupied the primacy, yet he was benevolent as determined, and, as we have mentioned, was known as Odo the Good amongst the poor. Stern and unyielding to the vices of the rich, he was gentle as a parent to the repentant sinner.