and the rest of us following two by two. Thehall was pretty full of thanes and their men, and it was just as I hadlast seen it. Alsi sat alone on his high seat, and there was no man withhim on the dais. I thought that he looked thinner and anxious.
Arngeir went up the hall at once, and stood before the king, and greetedhim in the English way, which seemed strange to me after the two yearsof Danish customs; and then Alsi bade him tell his errand.
"I have come from Goldberga of East Anglia, and from Havelok the Dane,her husband, to say that she has returned to her land, and would askthat you would give her the throne that you have held for her since theday that her father made you her guardian. It has been said that shemight ask you to give account of your management of the realm to her;but that she does not wish to do, being sure that all will be rightlydone in the matter, and she only asks to be set in the place that washer father's."
So said Arngeir, plainly, and I could see that the thanes thought thewords good.
And Alsi answered, "Has this matter been put before the Witan of theEast Angles?"
I suppose that he thought to hear Arngeir say that there had been notime for so doing at present, but my brother was readier than I shouldhave been.
"Doubtless it has," he said, "for that was your own promise to Goldbergaon her marriage."
At that Alsi flushed, and his brows wrinkled. He had said nothing to theWitan at all, but had waited in hopes that he should hear no more of hisniece, telling the tale that we had heard.
"I have had no answer from them," he said at last, for Arngeir waslooking at him in a way that he could not meet. "It was her saying thatshe would do this for herself."
"Then they do not refuse," said Arngeir quietly, "nor did I think thatthey would do so. It only remains therefore, that you, King Alsi, shoulddo your part. Then can the queen speak to the Witan, even as she said,concerning her husband."
Now it must have been clear to the king that nothing short of a plainanswer would be taken, and he sat and thought for a while. One could seethat he was planning what to say, as if things had not gone as heexpected. Maybe he hoped to put off the matter by talk of asking theWitan, and so to gain time, for we had certainly taken him unawares.
At last he said, "How am I to know that you are here with full power tospeak for Goldberga? For this is a weighty matter."
Arngeir held out his hand, and on it was the ring of Orwenna the queen,which Alsi had last seen here on the high place.
"There is the token, King Alsi, and it is one which you know well," heanswered.
"Ay, I know it," answered the king with a grin that was not pleasant.
And then he said, "I will speak with my thanes, and give you word tocarry back in an hour's time, now that I know you to be a true messenger."
"There should be no reason for waiting so long as that, nor do I thinkthat the matter of the throne of East Anglia is a question for Lindseythanes," answered Arngeir at once. "All this is between you and theprincess."
Thereat one of the thanes rose up and said, "If a kingdom has beenhanded over to our king, it is not to be taken again without our havinga good deal to say about it. I do not know, moreover, if we can have aforeigner over any part of our land."
"Goldberga never gave up her right to the kingdom," Arngeir answered,"as anyone who was here at the wedding would tell you. And as forHavelok, her husband, being a foreigner, it seems to me that a Jute whohas been brought up here in Lindsey since he was seven winters old isless a foreigner than a Briton is to us."
None made any answer to that, and I could see that the king was growingangry at being met thus at every turn. But he began to smile in that wayof his that I had learned to mistrust.
"That is not altogether courteous to either Goldberga or myself," hesaid, as if he would think the words a jest, seeing that he was halfWelsh. "Give me time, I pray you, to think of this, as I have asked, andyou shall go back with your answer."
There was no help for it, and we had to leave the hall in order thatAlsi might say what he had to say to his thanes. And I said to Arngeirthat it seemed that we should have to fight the matter out.
"Alsi risks losing both kingdoms if he does that," he answered, "for weshall take what we choose if we are the victors. The visions that havebeen thus right so far say that we shall be so."
"I shall be glad if we do come out on the right side," I said; "but Ihave not so much faith in these dream tellings as some. Nor do I thinkthat it seems altogether fair to fight on a certainty."
"When it is a matter of punishing one who does not keep faith, I do notthink that it matters much," he answered, laughing. "I should likecertainty that he would not get the best of the honest side in that case."
We were outside on the wide green within the square of the Roman wallsat this time, and now from within the hall came the sound of shouts andcheering which we heard plainly enough. But whether it meant that thethanes cheered Alsi because he would fight, rather than that theyapplauded his justice to his niece, was not to be known as yet. As forme, I thought that it was hardly likely to be the latter.
Then came three thanes from the hail with the message, and it was this,"Alsi bids Havelok go back to his own land and bide content therewith."
"What word is there for Goldberga, then?" asked Arngeir.
"None. She has thrown in her lot with the Dane, and it is he with whomwe will not deal."
Then said I, "How was it that she had to throw in her lot with Havelok?He was Alsi's own choice for her."
"That is not what we have heard," the spokesman answered. "Now it isbest that you go hence, for you have the answer."
"This means fighting for Goldberga's rights," said Arngeir, "and I willtell you that Havelok will not be backward in the matter."
"In that case we shall meet again on the battlefield ere long," answeredthe thane. "I will not say that Havelok is in the wrong, and thingsmight have been better settled. Farewell till then. The Norns will showwho is right."
So we went, and I thought, as did Arngeir, that there was some littlefeeling among his men that Alsi was wrong.
Now Alsi set to work to gather forces in earnest, and he went to work ina way that was all his own: for, saying nothing about Goldberga, he sentto all his thanes with word that the Vikings had come in force andinvaded the land, led by the son of Gunnar Kirkeban, whose ways wereworse than those of his father, for he spared none, whereas Kirkebanharried but the Welsh Christian folk. He prayed them therefore tohasten, that this scourge might be driven back to the sea whence hecame. And that brought men to him fast, for no Englishman can bear thatan invader shall set foot on his shore, be he who he may. Few knew whothe wife of Havelok was at that time, but I do not know that it wouldhave made so much difference if they had. None thought that into Englandhad come the fair princess who was so well loved.
Sorely troubled was Goldberga when she heard this answer, but it was allthat the rest of us looked for. And the next question was how best tomeet the false king.
In the end we did a thing that may seem to some to have been rashaltogether, but it was our wish to compel Alsi to fight before his forcewas great enough to crush us. It might be long before Ragnar could raisea host and join us, for there was always a chance that he might havetrouble in getting the Norfolk thanes to come to his standard for amarch on Lindsey. If we had gone to Norfolk at once there would havebeen no fear of that kind, but the fighting might have been more bitterand longer drawn out.
We sent the fleet southward into the Wash, that it might wait for us atthe port of the Fossdyke, on what men call the Frieston shore; and thenwe left Saltfleet and marched across country to the wolds, and southwardand westward along them, that we might draw Alsi from Lincoln. And allthe way men joined us for the sake of Curan, whom they knew, and ofGoldberga, of whom they had heard, so that in numbers at least our hostwas a great one. Ragged it might be, as one may say, with the wildmarshmen, who had no sort of training and no chiefs to keep them inhand; but I knew that no host Alsi could get together had
any suchtrained force in it as we had in the fifteen hundred Vikings, for theyhad seen many fights, and the ways of the sea teach men to hold togetherand to obey orders at once and without hesitating.
So we went until we came to Tetford, above Horncastle town; and there isa great camp on a hilltop, made by the British, no doubt, in the dayswhen they fought with Rome. There we stayed, for Alsi was upon us. Wesaw the fires of his camp in the village and on the hillsides across thevalley, but a mile or two from us that night; and it seemed that hishost was greater than ours, as we thought it would be, but not so muchso as to cause dread of the battle that was to come.
Now there were two men who came to us that night, and we thought thatthey had brought some message from Alsi at first. But all that theywanted was to
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