It would have been no difficult thing for Cedric, had he been so

disposed, to have placed himself at the head of a third party, as

formidable at least as any of the others. To counterbalance their royal

descent, he had courage, activity, energy, and, above all, that devoted

attachment to the cause which had procured him the epithet of The Saxon,

and his birth was inferior to none, excepting only that of Athelstane

and his ward. These qualities, however, were unalloyed by the slightest

shade of selfishness; and, instead of dividing yet farther his weakened

nation by forming a faction of his own, it was a leading part of

Cedric's plan to extinguish that which already existed, by promoting a

marriage betwixt Rowena and Athelstane. An obstacle occurred to this his

favourite project, in the mutual attachment of his ward and his son and

hence the original cause of the banishment of Wilfred from the house of

his father.

This stern measure Cedric had adopted, in hopes that, during Wilfred's

absence, Rowena might relinquish her preference, but in this hope he was

disappointed; a disappointment which might be attributed in part to the

mode in which his ward had been educated. Cedric, to whom the name of

Alfred was as that of a deity, had treated the sole remaining scion of

that great monarch with a degree of observance, such as, perhaps, was

in those days scarce paid to an acknowledged princess. Rowena's will had

been in almost all cases a law to his household; and Cedric himself, as

if determined that her sovereignty should be fully acknowledged within

that little circle at least, seemed to take a pride in acting as the

first of her subjects. Thus trained in the exercise not only of free

will, but despotic authority, Rowena was, by her previous education,

disposed both to resist and to resent any attempt to control her

affections, or dispose of her hand contrary to her inclinations, and to

assert her independence in a case in which even those females who have

been trained up to obedience and subjection, are not infrequently apt to

dispute the authority of guardians and parents. The opinions which she

felt strongly, she avowed boldly; and Cedric, who could not free himself

from his habitual deference to her opinions, felt totally at a loss how

to enforce his authority of guardian.

It was in vain that he attempted to dazzle her with the prospect of a

visionary throne. Rowena, who possessed strong sense, neither considered

his plan as practicable, nor as desirable, so far as she was concerned,

could it have been achieved. Without attempting to conceal her avowed

preference of Wilfred of Ivanhoe, she declared that, were that favoured

knight out of question, she would rather take refuge in a convent, than

share a throne with Athelstane, whom, having always despised, she now

began, on account of the trouble she received on his account, thoroughly

to detest.




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