"
"False Brithric!" echoed the wily tempter; "I will prove myself the
true friend of the Atheling, if he will only give consent to the deed
by which I will make him this very day the lord of England."
"Impossible," cried the prince; "you have no power to raise me to the
throne of my father Edward, albeit it is my lawful inheritance."
"The usurper Athelstane knows that full well," observed Brithric.
"Therefore it is that you are kept here, like a bird in a cage, leading
a life of monkish seclusion in an obscure college, instead of learning
to wield the battleaxe, to hurl the spear, and rein the war-horse, like
a royal Saxon prince."
"The wily tyrant shall find that Edwin the Atheling is not to be so
treated," exclaimed the prince, yielding to a burst of passion.
"You have no remedy, my lord," said Brithric; "for the people love the
usurper, and know nothing of his imprisoned brother, Edwin, the
rightful king of England."
"And shall I always be immured, like a captived thrush?" asked Edwin,
indignantly.
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