Edgar therefore consented to his favourite's marriage with her;
but the king, discovering that he had been deceived, insisted on paying
Athelwold a visit at his home in Devonshire. Athelwold craved permission
to go home and prepare for the king's visit, which was granted, and with
all possible haste he went and, kneeling before his wife, confessed all,
and asked her to help him out of his difficulties by putting on an old
dress and an awkward appearance when the king came, so that his life
might be spared. Elfrida was, however, disappointed at the loss of a
crown, and, instead of obscuring her beauty, she clothed herself so as
to appear as beautiful as possible, and, as she expected, captivated the
royal Edgar. A few days afterwards Athelwold was found murdered in a
wood, and the king married his widow. But the union, beginning with
crime, could not be other than unhappy, and ended disastrously, the king
only surviving his marriage six or seven years and dying at the early
age of thirty-two. He was buried at Glastonbury, an abbey he had greatly
befriended.
At the Dissolution the lands of Tavistock Abbey were given by King
Henry VIII, along with others, to Lord John Russell, whose descendants,
the Dukes of Bedford, still possess them.
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