Havelok The Dane, Charles Whistler [interesting books to read TXT] 📗

not know me at all.

"Well, master housecarl, what may your message be, and from whom is it?" he said, without more than a glance at me.

"Why, there are some old friends of yours who are anxious to know if you have forgotten the feeling of a halter round your neck," I said in good Danish.

Then, after one look, he knew me at once, and ran to me, and took my hand, and almost kissed me in his pleasure, for since I could handle an oar he had known me, and had taught me how to do that, moreover.

Then he called for wine and food; and we sat down together and had a long talk of the old days, and of how we had fared after he left, and of all else that came uppermost. And sorely he grieved at my father's death, and at the trouble that was on us. The famine had not been so sore in the south, and pestilence had not been at all.

As for himself, he had been courtman, as we call the housecarls, at first, and so had risen to be chamberlain to the king, and now to the princess, and had been with her everywhere that Alsi had sent her since her father died.

"It was a good day for me, and wise was Grim when he bade me go to Ethelwald to seek service," he said; "yet I would that I had seen him once more. I have never been to this place before, else I should have sought him."

Now I was going to ask him about Havelok, but hardly knew how to begin. He saved me the trouble however, by speaking first.

"Who were the lady and the boy we had on board when we came to England?" he said. "I never heard, and maybe it was as well that I did not."

"My father never told me. But why do you think that it was well not to know?"

"Because I am sure that Grim had good reason for not telling. Before I had been a year at Norwich there came a ship from Denmark into the river, and soon men told me that her master was asking for news of one Grim, a merchant, who was lost. So I saw him, not saying who I was or that I had anything to do with Grim; and then I found that it was not so much of the master that he wanted news as of the boy we had with us. He did not ask of the lady at all, and I was sure that this was the man who came and spoke to Grim just as we were sailing, if you remember. So then it came to me that we knew nothing of the coming on board of these two, only learning of their presence when we were far at sea. And now, if Hodulf troubled himself so much about this boy, there must be something that he was not meant to know about his flight, for he must be of some note. Did I not know that the king's son was in his hands at that time, I should have thought that our passenger was he. However, I told him of the shipwreck as of a thing that I had seen, saying that Grim and his family and a few men only had been saved; and I told him also that I had heard that he had lost some folk in an attack by Vikings. With that he seemed well satisfied, and I heard no more of him. I have wondered ever since who the boy was, and if he was yet alive. I mind that he was like to die when he came ashore."

Then I laughed, and said that he would hear of him soon enough, for all the town was talking of him; and he guessed whom I meant, for he had heard of the cook's mighty man.

Now I said no more but this:

"My father kept this matter secret all these years, and with reason, as we have seen; and so, while he is here, we call this foster-brother of mine Curan, until the time comes when his name may he known. Maybe it will be best for you not to say much of your knowledge of him. What does Earl Ragnar know of our wreck? For he told me that you knew me."

"I told him all about it at one time or another," Mord answered. "He always wanted to hear of Denmark."

So that was all that the chamberlain knew; but it was plain to me that the earl had put two and two together when he heard Havelok's name, and had remembered that this was also the name of Gunnar's son. Afterwards I found that Mord had heard from Denmark that Hodulf was said to have made away with Havelok, but he never remembered that at this time. Ragnar knew this, and did remember it.

Pleasant it was to talk of old days with an old friend thus, and the time went quickly. Then Mord must go to his mistress and I to my place, and so we parted for the time. But my last doubt of who Havelok my brother might be was gone. I was sure that he was the son of Gunnar the king.

CHAPTER XIII. THE WITAN'S FEASTING.

Now I have to tell of a strange thing that happened in the night that was just past, the first that the Lady Goldberga had spent here in Lincoln for many a year, for on that happening hangs a great deal, and it will make clear what I myself saw presently at the breaking-up feast of the Witan. That puzzled me mightily at the time, as it did many at the feast, but I see no reason why it should not be told at once.

Now I have said that Goldberga left the hall early overnight, being wearied with the journey, and having the remembrance of the attack on her party so near to Lincoln to trouble her also. Not much cause to love her uncle Alsi had she; though perhaps, also, not much to make her hate him, except that he had kept her so far away from her own people of late, in a sort of honourable captivity. Now it was plain to her that had it not been for the presence of Ragnar and his men, her guard would not have been able to drive off the attackers; and the strange way in which Griffin had held back had been too plain for her not to notice. Already she feared him, and it seemed that he might have plotted her carrying off thus. That Alsi might have had a hand in the matter did not come into her mind, as it did into the minds of others, for she knew little of him, thinking him honest if not very pleasant in his ways, else had not her father made him her guardian.

I will say now that in the attack he did have a hand. Many a long year afterward it all came out in some way. He dared not give his niece to Griffin openly, but he wished to do so, as then he would have an under-king in East Anglia of his own choosing. Sorely against the grain with him was it that he should have to give up those fair lands to this girl, who would hold the throne by her own right, and not at all under him. So he and Griffin had plotted thus, and only Ragnar's presence had spoilt the plan, though Griffin had tried to save it by holding back. But I must say also that up to this time none had had aught to say against Alsi as a ruler, though he was over close, and not at all hearty in his ways at home. But now, for the sake of the kingdom, he had begun to plot; and this plan having come to naught, he must make others, as will be seen. I do not think that this planning to keep Ethelwald's kingdom from his daughter was anything fresh to Alsi, but the time for action had come now.

He had made ready by keeping the fair princess far away, and there were none who could speak of her goodness, or, indeed, had heard much of her since she was a child. Therefore, as men were content enough with him, none would trouble much if the princess came not to the throne, given good reason why she should not do so. And the very best reason would be that which Alsi had given at the Witan--if her husband was not fit to be king.

It is possible that Goldberga knew that her marriage would be talked of at this Witan: but I do not think that she troubled herself much about it, not by any means intending to be married against her will. I have heard that so ran the will of Ethelwald, that she was to have choice to some extent. However that may be, with so many thoughts to trouble her she went to rest, and her sleep was not easy until the morning was near, and then came quiet.

But presently, in the grey of the dawn, she woke, and called her old nurse, who was in the chamber with her; and when she came she told her that she had had a strange vision or dream, so real that she did not know which it was. And what it portended she could not say, for it was wonderful altogether, and surely was good.

"I thought that a voice wakened me, calling me to look on somewhat; and so I rose as I was bidden, and saw before me the most mighty and comeliest man that could be thought of. Kinglike he was, though he had no crown and was meanly clad, without brooch or bracelet that a king should wear. But the wonder was that from his mouth came a bright shaft of flame, as it were of a sunbeam, that lighted all the place, and on his shoulder shone a cross of burning light as of red-hot gold, and I knew that it was the mark of a mighty king.

"Then I heard the voice again, and I turned, and saw that it was an angel who spoke to me, and his face was bright and kind.

"'Fear not, Goldberga,' he said, 'for this is your husband that shall be. King's son and heir is he, as that token of the fiery cross shows. More, also, it will betoken--that he shall reign in England and in Denmark, a great king and mighty. And this you shall see, and with him shall you reign as queen and well-loved lady.'

"So the voice ceased, and the angel was gone, and when I looked up there was naught but the growing dawn across yon window, and the voice of the thrush that sings outside."

Now the old nurse pondered over the dream for a while without speaking, for she could not see what it might mean at first.

But at last she said, "It is a good dream surely, because of the angel that spoke; but there seems only one way in which it can come to pass. A prince must come for you from Denmark, for there he would reign by his own right, and here he would do so by yours. Yet I have heard that the Danish kings are most terrible heathen, worse than the Saxon kin, of whom we know the worst now. Maybe that is why the angel told you