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

was my own fault maybe. The thane was overhasty certainly, but one does not think with pain gnawing at one. Let that pass.

"Now, earl, I think that you may say what you have to say that will set things right once more."

"Can none of us put the arm back first?" I said. "I will try, if none else has done such a thing before, for it will not be the first time."

"Put it back, if you can," said Cadwal. "If there is anything to be said, it had better be in some sort of comfort."

So I put the arm back, for when once the trick is learned there is not, as a rule, much trouble. But Griffin never thanked me. He left that to his seconds, who did so well enough.

Then Ragnar came forward and said gravely, "I was wrong when I called you 'nidring,' and I take back the word and ask you to forget it. No man who is that will face the Danish axe as you have faced it, and I will say that the British sword is a thing to be feared."

But Griffin made no answer, and when Ragnar held out his hand he would not see it.

"Maybe I have not yet made amends," Ragnar went on. "I will add, therefore, as I know that my words will go no farther, that I am sure that the thing concerning which we quarrelled yesterday was done by you at the orders of another. It was not your own doing, and no thought of cowardice is in my mind now."

But Griffin never answered; and now he turned his back on the earl, who was plainly grieved, and said no more to him, but turned to us and the two Welshmen.

"I do not think that I can say more. If there is aught that is needed, tell me. We have fought a fair fight, and I have taken back the words that caused it."

Then said Cadwal, "No more is needed. I did not think that we had met with so generous a foe. If Griffin will say naught, we say this for him. He has no cause for enmity left. And I say also that he has to thank this thane for his life as well as the earl."

"No thane am I," said Havelok, "but only Havelok Grimsson of Grimsby. And even that name is set aside for a while, so that I must ask you to forget it. I have seen a good fight, if a short one, and one could not smite a wounded man who forgot himself for a moment."

There was nothing more to be had from Griffin, for we waited a minute or two in silence to see if he would speak, and then we saluted and left the wood.

The last thing that I saw seemed to be a matter of high words between Griffin and his seconds; and, indeed, if they were telling him what they thought, it is likely that he wished he had been more courteous. It is easy enough for a man who wants a quarrel to have done with one and then start another.

CHAPTER XII. IN LINCOLN MARKETPLACE.

We went quietly back to the town, and there was only one thing that I wished, and that was that Havelok had not had to tell his name twice. Ragnar was full of thanks to us for our help, and said that he would that we would come to Norfolk with him.

"We have a man who knows you also," he said, "but he has been with our princess for a long time now. He is called Mord, and is her chamberlain. He has often told me how he came by his wry-neck at the time of your shipwreck."

So he said, and looked at Havelok. But this was a thing that he had not seen, as he was so sick at the time. I said that I remembered Mord well, and would seek him some time in the day.

And as I said this I was thinking that I must find out from Mord whether he knew and had told more than I could of who Havelok was and whence he came to us. It seemed to me that the earl had heard some tale or other, and unless it was from him I could not think from whence.

Now the earl said, "This business has ended better than I could have hoped, and I think that Alsi will not hear of it. Griffin can well account for a slipped shoulder by any sort of fall that he likes to own to, and Alsi would be hardly pleased to hear that he had run the risk of setting all Norfolk against him for nothing after all."

"There is no doubt that he meant you to know that he does not consider the quarrel done with," I said. "You have an enemy there."

"Nothing new, that," answered Ragnar, laughing. "He thinks that I stand in his way with the princess. I suppose it is common talk that if he wedded her Alsi would still hold the East Anglian kingdom, making him ealdorman, if only I were out of the way. But were I to wed the lady, then it is certain that she would take the crown at once. I do not mean to do so, for then it is likely that three people would be unhappy for the rest of their days. But that would be less wretched for her than to wed Griffin."

"This is no pleasant strait for the poor lady," said Havelok grimly. "Do none ask what she herself can wish?"

"That is the trouble," said the earl, "for she is in Alsi's hand, and there is some old promise and oath sworn between him and Ethelwald her father that holds him back. Else had she been wedded to Griffin before now."

Then we came to the widow's house, and Havelok left his arms there, and we went on to the marketplace. As we crossed the bridge we saw that there was something going forward, for there was a gathering in the wide space, and a shouting and cheering now and then, and even Berthun himself was there looking on and seeming to be highly entertained.

"Here is a crowd that I will not face just now, in my arms," said the earl; "for this hole in my shield looks bad, not having been there when I went out. Farewell for the time, therefore, and think of what I said about your coming to Norwich with me."

He turned away therefore, and Havelok looked after him for a moment. The shield hung at his back, plain to be seen.

"It is a hole, for certain," he said; "but there is no need to show it in that wise."

So he strode after him.

"By your leave, earl, I will arrange your cloak across the shield, and then you can get it to your armourer without notice."

"That is well thought of," answered Ragnar, as Havelok did as he had said. "I do not forget that I think that I owe you my life, though I have said nothing as yet."

"How is that?"

"Griffin would have flown on me as he did on you, certainly; and it is in my mind that you foresaw it, which I did not. I could not have stayed him."

"Well I did," answered my brother; "else had either I or you a hole in us like the one that is well covered now. But I feared what came to pass."

Ragnar held out his hand, and Havelok took it, and so they parted without more words; but I knew that these two were friends from that time forward, whatever happened.

There were some sports of some sort on hand, when we came to see what all the noise was; and Berthun, seeing us, called Havelok to him.

"I have been looking for you," he said, with that curious tone of his that always seemed to be asking pardon for his boldness in speaking to my brother; "for here are games at which they need some one to show the way."

"This is a sport that I have not seen before," answered Havelok, looking over the heads of the crowd. "I should make a poor hand at it."

They had been tossing a great fir pole, which was now laid on one side, with its top split from its falls, and they, thanes and freemen in turn, were putting a great stone, so heavy that a matter of a few inches beyond the longest cast yet made would be something to be proud of. Good sport enough it was to see the brawny housecarls heave it from the ground and swing it. But no one could lift it above his knee, so that one may suppose that it flew no great distance at a cast.

"Nay, but the thanes are trying," Berthun said. "It is open to all to do what they can. One of your porters is best man so far."

"Well, I will not try to outdo him."

"I would that you would lift the stone, Curan. That is a thing that I should most like to see."

"Well then, master, as you bid me, I will try. But do not expect too much."

The man who had the stone made his cast, which was nothing to speak of; and then the stone lay unclaimed for a time, while all the onlookers waited to see who came forward next. Then Havelok made his way through the crowd, and a silence as of wonder fell on the people; for some knew him, and had heard of his strength, and those who did not stared at him as at a wonder. But the silence did not last long, for the porters who were there set up a sort of shout of delight, and that one who had made the longest cast so far began to tell him how best to heft the stone and swing it.

Then Havelok bent to raise the stone, and the noise hushed again. I saw his mighty limbs harden and knot under the strain, and up to his knee he heaved it, and to his middle, and yet higher, to his chest, while we all held our breaths, and then with a mighty lift it was at his shoulder, and he poised it, and swung as one who balances for a moment, and then hurled it from him. Then was a shout that Alsi might have heard in his hilltop palace, for full four paces beyond the strong porter's cast it flew, lighting with a mighty crash, and bedding itself in the ground where it lit. And I saw the young thanes with wide eyes looking at my brother, and from beside me Berthun the cook fairly roared with delight.

And then from across the space between the two lines of onlookers I saw a man in a fisher's dress that caught my eye. It was Withelm, and we nodded to each other, well pleased.

Now there seemed to be a strife as to who should get nearest to Havelok, for men crowded to pat him and to look up at him, and that pleased him not at all. One came and bade him take the silver pennies that the thanes had set out for the prize, but he shook his head and smiled.

"I threw the thing because I was bidden, and not for any prize," he said. "I would have it given to the porter who fairly won it."

Then he elbowed his way to Berthun, and said, "let us go, master; we have stayed here too long already."

"As it pleases you," the steward said; and Havelok waved his hand to me, and they went their way.

He had not seen Withelm, and I was glad, for I wanted to speak to him alone first.

Now men began to ask who this was, and many voices answered, while the porter went to claim the prize from the thane who held it.

Two silver pennies the thane gave him, and said, "This seems to be a friend of yours, and it was good to hear you try to help him without acrimony. Not that he needed any hints from any one, however. Who is he?"

"Men call him Curan, that being the name he gives himself; but he came as a stranger to the place, and none know from whence, unless Berthun the cook may do so. Surely he is a friend of mine, for he shook me once, and that shaking made an honest man of me. He himself taught me what fair play is, at that same time."

So said the porter, and laughed, and the thane joined him.

"Well, he has made a sort of name for himself as a wonder, certainly, now. I think that this cast of his will be told of every time men lift a