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.
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