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KING ALFRED'S WILL
9

it they read before all the West-Saxon Nobles. When it read was, then prayed I them all for my love (and to them my security gave, that I of them never to none would bear ill will for that they right should speak) that of them none would neglect, neither for my love nor for my fear, that they the common right should declare; lest any man should say, that I my kinsfolk, whether elder or younger, wrongfully had excluded. And they then all for right pronounced and declared, that they no more rightful Title conceive could, nor in a Title-Deed hear of. “Now (said they) it all delivered is there into thy hand: Wherefore thou it mayest bequeath and give, either to a Relation or a Stranger, as to thee most eligible may be." And they all to me thereupon their security gave, and their hand-setting, that, during their life, it no man never should pervert in none other wise but so as I it my self should direct on the next day.