Britain ... - Blue-Lite

164 THE DEVOTED ONE. [Act III.
ACT III.
SCENE I. A Hall in the Palace.
Enter Canute and Edric.
CANUTE.
THE sons of Ethelred are on the deep
That bears them far away to Swedish shores.
Their names will in the chronicle of kings
Be never entered : History shall forget them,
As though they ne'er had been.
But think'st thou, Edric,
That Athelburg will take a faithful charge
Of Edwin, who too nearly stands beside
Our English throne ? on whom the people look
I mean the Saxon rabble with such love
And worship that 'tis said he hath acquired
The ambiguous title of the King of Peasants.
EDRIC.
The sole remaining leaf is that, my lord,
Of England's regal tree, whose trunk is dry,
Whose branches all are smitten by the flash
Of thy death-dealing sword. Soon will the winds
Of autumn dash that trembling leaf to earth,
And never shall its parent root put forth
A summer bud again.
CANUTE.
O, how I feel
My eagle-spirit burn to soar above