Havelok the Dane: A Legend of Old Grimsby and Lincoln, Charles W. Whistler [most read books of all time TXT] 📗

Havelok laughed.

"Well, I did tell them that they should take turns, or somewhat like that; and I also told them that if you complained of them I would see to it."

"Did you say that you would pay them, may I ask -- that is, of course, if they were orderly? For if so, I thank --"

"I told them that if you complained I would knock their heads together," said Havelok.

And that was the beginning of the Lincoln porters' guild; and in after days Havelok was wont to say that he would that all lawmaking was as easy as that first trial of his. Certainly from that day forward there was no man in all the market who would not have done aught for my brother, and many a dispute was he called on to settle. It is not always that a law, however good it may be, finds not a single one to set himself against it. But then Havelok was a strong man.

Now there is naught to tell of either Havelok or myself for a little while, for we went on in our new places comfortably enough. One heard much of Havelok, though, for word of him and his strength and goodliness, and of his kindness moreover, went through the town, with tales of what he had done. But I never heard that any dared to ask him to make a show of himself by doing feats of strength. Only when he came down to the guardroom sometimes with me would he take part in the weapon play that he loved, and the housecarls, who were all tried and good warriors, said that he was their master in the use of every weapon, and it puzzled them to know where he had learned so well, for he yet wore his fisher's garb. They sent his arms with mine from Grimsby, thinking that he also needed them; but he left them with the widow.

Havelok used to laugh if they asked him this, and tell them that it came by nature, and in that saying there was more than a little truth. So the housecarls, when they heard how Berthun was wont to treat him, thought also that he was some great man in hiding, and that the steward knew who he was. They did not know but that my close friendship with him had sprung up since he came, and that was well, and Eglaf and he and I were soon much together. The captain wanted him to leave the cook and be one of his men, but we thought that he had better bide where he was, rather than let Alsi the king have him always about him. For now and then that strange feeling, as of the old days, came over him when he was in the great hall, and he had to go away and brood over it for a while until he would set himself some mighty task and forget it.

But one day he came to me and said that he was sure he knew the ways of a king too well for it all to be a dream, adding that Berthun saw that also, and was curious about him.

"Tell me, brother, whence came I? Was I truly brought up in a court?"

"I have never heard," I answered. "All that I know for certain is that you fled with us from Hodulf, the new king, and that for reasons which my father never told me."

Then said Havelok, "There was naught worth telling, therefore. I suppose I was the child of some steward like Berthun; but yet --"

So he went away, and I wondered long if it were not time that Arngeir should tell all that he knew. It was of no good for me to say that in voice and ways and deed he had brought back to me the Gunnar whom I had not seen for so many long years, for that was as likely as not to be a fancy of mine, or if not a fancy, he might be only a sister's son or the like. But in all that he said there was no word of his mother, and by that I knew that his remembrance must be but a shadow, if a growing one.

But there was no head in all the wide street that was not turned to look after him; and now he went his way from me with two children, whom he had caught up from somewhere, perched on either shoulder, and another in his arms, and they crowed with delight as he made believe to be some giant who was to eat them forthwith, and ran up the hill with them. No such playmate had the Lincoln children before Havelok came.

Three weeks after we came the Witan8 began to gather, and that was a fine sight as the great nobles of Lindsey, and of the North folk of East Anglia, came day by day into the town with their followings, taking up their quarters either in the better houses of the place or else pitching bright-coloured tents and pavilions on the hillside meadows beyond the stockades. Many brought their ladies with them, and all day long was feasting and mirth at one place or another, as friend met with friend. Never had I seen such a gay sight as the marketplace was at midday, when the young thanes and their men met there and matched their followers at all sorts of sports. The English nobles are far more fond of gay dress and jewels than our Danish folk, though I must say that when the few Danes of Ethelwald's household came it would seem that they had taken kindly to the fashion of their home.

Our housecarls grumbled a bit for a while, for with all the newcomers dressed span new for the gathering, we had had nothing fresh for it from the king, as was the custom, and I for one was ashamed of myself, for under my mail was naught but the fisher's coat, which is good enough for hard wear, but not for show. But one day we were fitted out fresh by the king's bounty in blue and scarlet jerkins and hose, and we swaggered after that with the best, as one may suppose.

Berthun had the ordering of that business, and he came and sat with Eglaf in the gatehouse and talked of it.

"Pity that you do not put your man Curan into decent gear," the captain said. "That old sailcloth rig does not do either him or you or the court credit."

"That is what I would do," said the steward, "but he will not take aught but the food that he calls his hire. He is a strange man altogether, and I think that he is not what he seems."

"So you have told me many times, and I think with you. He will be some crack-brained Welsh princeling who has been crossed in love, and so has taken some vow on him, as the King Arthur that they prate of taught them to do. Well, if he is such, it is an easy matter to make him clothe himself decently. It is only to tell him that the clothes are from the king, and no man who has been well brought up may refuse such a gift."

"But suppose that he thanks the king for the gift. Both he and the king will be wroth with me."

"Not Curan, when he has once got the things on; and as for Alsi, he will take the thanks to himself, and chuckle to think that the mistake has gained him credit for a good deed that he never did."

"Hush, comrade, hush!" said Berthun quickly; "naught but good of the king!"

"I said naught ill. But if Woden or Frey, or whoever looks after good deeds, scores the mistake to Alsi as well, it will be the first on the count of charity that --"

But at this Berthun rose up in stately wise.

"I may not listen to this. To think that here in the guardroom I should hear such --"

"Sit down, comrade," said Eglaf, laughing, and pulling the steward into his seat again. "Well you know that I would be cut to pieces for the king tomorrow if need were, and so I earn free speech of him I guard. If I may not say what I think of him to a man who knows as much of him as I, who may?"

"I have no doubt that the king would clothe Curan if I asked him," said Berthun stiffly, but noways loth to take his seat again.

"But it is as much as your place is worth to do it. I know what you would say."

Berthun laughed.

"I will do it myself, and if Alsi does get the credit, what matter?"

Wherefore it came to pass that as I was on guard at the gate leading to the town next day I saw a most noble-looking man coming towards me, and I looked a second time, for I thought him one of the noblest of all the thanes who had yet come, and the second look told me that it was Havelok in this new array. I will say that honest Berthun had done his part well; and if the king was supposed to be the giver, he had nothing to complain of. Eglaf had told me of the way in which the dressing of Havelok was to be done.

"Ho!" said I, "I thought you some newcomer."

"I hardly know myself," he answered, "and I am not going to grumble at the change, seeing that this is holiday time. Berthun came to me last evening, and called me aside, and said that it was the king's wont to dress his folk anew at the time of the Witan, and then wanted to know if my vow prevented me from wearing aught but fisher's clothes. And when I said that if new clothes went as wage for service about the place I was glad to hear it, he was pleased, as if it had been likely that I would refuse a good offer. So the tailor went to work on me, and hence this finery. But you are as fine, and this is more than we counted on when we left Grimsby. I suppose it is all in honour of the lady of the North folk, Goldberga."

"Maybe, for I have heard that she is to come."

"To be fetched rather, if one is to believe all that one hears. They say that Alsi has kept her almost as a captive in Dover, having given her into the charge of some friend of his there, that she may be far from her own kingdom and people. Now the Norfolk Witan has made him bring her here. Berthun seems to think there will be trouble."

"Only because Alsi will not want to let the kingdom go from his hand to her. But that will not matter. He is bound by the old promise to her father."

Now we were talking to one another in broad Danish, there being none near to hear us. We had always used it among ourselves at Grimsby, for my father loved his old tongue. But at that moment there rode up to the gate a splendid horseman, young and handsome, and with great gold bracelets on his arms, one or two of which caught my eye at once, for they were of the old Danish patterns, and just such as Jarl Sigurd used to wear. But if I was quick to notice these tokens of the old land, he had been yet quicker, for he reined up before I stayed him, as was my duty if he would pass through this gate to the palace, so that I might know his authority.

"If I am not mistaken," he said in our own tongue, "I heard you two talking in the way I love best. Skoal, therefore, to the first Northman I have met between here and London town, for it is good to hear a friendly voice."

"Skoal to the jarl!" I answered, and I gave the salute of Sigurd's courtmen, which came into my mind on the moment with the familiar greeting of long years ago. And "Skoal," said Havelok.

"Jarl! How know you that I am that?"

"By the jarl's bracelet that you wear, surely."

"So you are a real Dane -- not an English-bred one like myself. That is good. You and I will have many a talk together. Odin, how good it is to meet a housecarl who speaks as man to man and does not cringe to me! Who are you?"

"Radbard Grimsson of Grimsby, housecarl just now to this King of Lindsey."

"And your comrade?"

I was about to tell this friendly countryman Havelok's name without thought,