Edwin's marriage with Elgiva--Odo, the Danish archbishop-- St. Dunstan--His early life--He becomes delirious--His intellectual attainments--His persecution--He falls in love --Is dissuaded from marriage by the bishop, Ælfheag--He is again attacked with sickness--Recovers, and becomes a monk-- Lives in a narrow cell--Absurdity of his rumoured interviews with the Evil One--His high connexions--Analysis of his character--Dunstan's rude attack upon King Edwin, after the banquet--Dunstan again driven from court--Remarks on his conduct--Elgiva is cruelly tortured, and savagely murdered by the command of Odo, the archbishop of Canterbury--Dunstan recalled from his banishment--Supposed murder of Edwin p. 227 CHAPTER XXVIII. THE REIGN OF EDGAR. Power of Dunstan--He is made Archbishop of Canterbury--He appoints his own friends counsellors to the young king--His encouragement of the fine arts--Enforces the Benedictine rules upon the monks--Speech of Edgar in favour of Dunstan's reformation in the monasteries--Romantic adventure of Elfrida, daughter of the Earl of Devonshire--Death of Athelwold-- Personal courage of Edgar--His love of pomp, and generosity-- His encouragement of foreign artificers--His tribute of wolves' heads--England infested with wolves long after the commencement of the Saxon period--Many of the Saxon names derived from the wolf--Death of Edgar--Elfric's sketch of his character-- Changes wrought by Edgar p. 233 CHAPTER XXIX. EDWARD THE MARTYR. Dunstan still triumphant--Is opposed by the dowager-queen Elfrida --Her attempts to place her son, Ethelred, upon the throne, frustrated by Dunstan--Contest between the monks and the secular clergy--The Benedictine monks driven out of Mercia-- The Synod of Winchester--Dunstan's pretended miracle doubted-- The council of Calne--William of Malmesbury's description of the assembly--Dunstan's threat--Falling in of that portion of the floor on which Dunstan's opponents stood--Reasons for supposing that the floor was undermined by the command of Dunstan--Death of his enemies, and triumph of the archbishop --Edward's visit to Corfe Castle--He is stabbed in the back while pledging his stepmother, Elfrida, at the gate--His dreadful death--Character of Elfrida p. 238 CHAPTER XXX. ETHELRED THE UNREADY.