62 THE MYSTERY OF CORFE. 



upon learning that the Queen lived near a spot where he 

 chanced to be, that Edward proceeded to the house at full 

 speed unattendeed. Furthermore, he discloses no fact that 

 would warrant the assertion that a stratagem of any sort 

 was employed by the Queen in order to lure Edward to des- 

 truction, rather as I read the chronicle, Edward's presence on 

 the fatal spot was the result of pure chance, for even if it 

 were likely that Elfrida foresaw or had information of his 

 presence on a hunting expedition, it is unlikely that she could 

 have arranged that he should lose all his attendants, it is. 

 unlikely that she could have arranged that just at the right 

 moment he should have been informed that he was near a house 

 where she was staying, and it is impossible that she should 

 have arranged that he should have felt thirsty. Again, after 

 the dagger had pierced him, Malmesbury maintains that he set 

 spurs to his horse in order to join his companions; but even had 

 this been his intention, how in the first place could Edward 

 have informed anyone of the fact, or how could he have 

 formed the project of joining companions of whose where- 

 abouts he must have been absolutely ignorant ? For he had 

 clearly lost all trace of them when he started on the fatal 

 ride towards Elfrida's house. 



William of Malmesbury appears to have been solely res- 

 ponsible for the statement that the murder took place at 

 Corfe, for w r hile all or nearly all the previous writers had 

 designated the locality Corfe geate, he boldly makes the 

 statement that Edward was killed at Corfe, which was near 

 the sea and not far from Warham. But it has already been 

 pointed out that Corfe geate was by previous writers asserted 

 to have been the site of the deed, and evidence has been ad- 

 vanced to show that Corfe geate was near Portisham, many 

 miles to the w T est of Corfe, and the whole connection of Corfe 

 with the site of Elfrida's house, where the murder was accom- 

 plished, rests upon the assumption evidently entertained by 

 Malmesbury that Corfe and Corfe geate represented one and 

 the same spot. Now to sum up the question in relation to 

 the site of the murder, there is no evidence that Elfrida had 



