At the Aldwark they found the King engaged in conversation with Bassus and Sivel. The great general was representing to Edwin that neither Penda nor Cadwalla was a neighbour on whose good faith reliance could be implicitly placed. Penda, the King of Mercia, had succeeded in 626, not without suspicion that he had made away with his cousin Kearl, the late King, by violence. He was a truculent, faithless man, always committing aggressions on his neighbours, and ever thirsting for blood. He had, however, freely acknowledged the Bretwaldaship of Edwin, assisted him in his march to Wessex, and continued to profess friendship. Bassus thought that he protested too much. Cadwalla, the King of Gwynedd, although professing Christianity, was a more brutal savage than Penda. He was endowed with some cunning, and also professed friendship for the great Bretwalda. Bassus had reason for suspecting that there was a secret understanding between the two traitors. He was no alarmist, but there had been a long peace, and the King was unsuspicious and over–confident. A sudden invasion would find him unprepared. "What has happened to make you speak thus, my Bassus?" asked the King. The faithful paladin was unable to say that anything had actually happened. "Ah! you think we are rusting in the long peace. If there should ever be war, which God forbid," he added affectionately, "in Bassus will be our hope and our reliance." The other friends had unbounded faith in the military sagacity of their beloved companion. But Edwin would hear no more. Bassus and Sivel remained at York. The rest fared northward, with the King and his family, to the royal country seat of Adgefrin.
CHAPTER VII
THE END
The day had been passed delightfully, hunting in the forests at the bases of Cheviot Hill and Yeavering Bell. The royal party had assembled at a trysting–place for an early supper, and was now riding home to Adgefrin. Edwin looked splendid in his hunting–dress, with his golden locks falling from a light cap, and his fair beard resting on the darker leathern coat. He was superbly mounted, and in one hand he held a hunting–horn. His eyes brightened with pride as he glanced at his gallant young sons, Offrid and Eadfrid. Close behind him rode Osric and his young son Oswin. Then followed Coelred, Porlor, and Godric, with Froda and other faithful retainers bringing up the rear. Alas! it was the good King's last hour of pleasure. The joyous laughter of the young Athelings rang through the glades as the cavalcade reached home.
Sivel was at the gate, his face full of anxiety, his horse covered with foam and ready to drop. He brought certain news that Penda, the King of Mercia, was marching across the country of the Gainas with a large army, and had given a defiant answer to a messenger who had been sent to ask the cause of his invasion. In a few days he would be on the Don. Cadwalla was known to have an equally large force in motion, and Bassus was sending out scouts to ascertain his position day by day. He had also summoned the Deiran tribes to meet at York.
Edwin sorrowfully remembered the timely warning of his faithful general. Fresh horses were ordered, and the King set out at once, accompanied by the four paladins and his two sons. Osric undertook to guard the Queen, Paulinus, and the children, and to escort them as quickly as possible to Aldby. The King reached York in the first week of October 633. Still worse news awaited him. Cadwalla, with an immense army, had crossed the moors from Chester, and was marching rapidly with the apparent object of forming a junction with Penda. In a hurried consultation Bassus pointed out that every hour was of moment, as the only hope was in engaging the two armies in detail, before they were in touch of each other. But the Northumbrian force was very small, and there was no time to wait for reinforcements. Bassus wished to attend on the King's person, but Edwin insisted that he must remain at York. "If anything happens to me," he said, "who is to guard my wife and children, who is to save the kingdom if you fall by my side?" Bassus reluctantly yielded. He was to strive to form a second army at York, and guard the Queen.
Edwin left York with a small but valiant force, commanded by himself in person, Coelred, Porlor, Godric, Sivel, the two Athelings, and the principal thegns of Deira. He felt confident that he could dispose of Penda if he could engage him before the arrival of Cadwalla. All depended upon that. At the ford of Nehalennia loyal old Saebald joined the King with his Billingas. But news also came that Cadwalla was already advancing down the valley of the Calder. Edwin increased the rapidity of his marches to the Don.