A veil of tension had fallen upon the Papal States.  Lothair the First, Holy Roman Emperor and grandson of Charlemagne was dead and succession was not certain.  Pope Leo IV had not been seen in more than a year.  Any words from His Eminence came only through the Rectrix Joan, and she held the purse strings as well.  A dirty business filled the halls of the Holy See. 

  At the reception following Lothair’s Funeral Mass the boys from the school gave recitations and sang lamentations, young princes and sons of nobles all.  Aethelwulf of Wessex, King of England, was in attendance and eager to see his youngest son Alfred whom he left in the hands of Leo five years earlier as a mere sprig, not quite three, all curly topped and bursting with curiosity.  

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