It has been our task to call them both back to life--knight and prior, and to make them live in our pages. Pardon us, gentle readers, for the imperfect way in which we have fulfilled it. Thus ends the Third and last Chronicle of Aescendune. i Ordericus Vitalis, lib. iv. 523. ii William of Malmesbury. iii Sassenach equals Saxon. iv It seems strange how such a misconception could ever have arisen and coloured English literature to so great an extent, for if we turn to the pages of the contemporaneous historians, such as Henry of Huntingdon, William of Malmesbury, Florence of Worcester, Ordericus Vitalis--born within the century of the Conquest--we find that they all describe the Anglo-Saxons as English, not Saxons. v See the Second Chronicle, chapter VI. vi Genealogy of Aescendune. The reader may be glad to have the genealogy of the family, in whom it has been the author's aim to interest him, placed clearly before him. The following table includes the chief names in the three Chronicles; the date of decease is given in each case. Offa, 940. * Oswald, 937. + Ragnar, 959. * Ella, 959. + Elfric, 960. + Alfred, 998, m. Alftrude. o Elfric, 975. o Elfwyn, 1036, m. Hilda. # Bertric, 1006. # Ethelgiva, 1064, m. Alfgar. @ Edmund, 1066, m. Winifred. - Wilfred, 1122. - Edith, 1124, m. Etienne, 1110. @ Elfleda, 1030. o Cuthbert, 1034 (Prior). o Bertha, 1030, m. Herstan. # Winifred, 1067. + Edgitha, 990. vii This Herstan figures largely in "Alfgar the Dane." He married Bertha, daughter of Alfred of Aescendune, the hero of the "First Chronicle." See the genealogical table at the end of the book. viii "By Thy Cross and Passion; Good Lord, deliver her." ix Poison amongst the Normans. It may be thought by many readers that the poisoner's art could never have flourished among so chivalrous a people as the Normans; but the contrary was the case; and there are several instances of such foul murders in the pages of the old chroniclers, sufficient to justify the introduction of the scene in our story.