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

"Why," he said, "I will have no Welsh outsiders harrying my friends. Light up your beacon if he comes, and shut your gates in his face, and I and the housecarls will take him in the rear, and he will not wait here long. I have not had a fight for these twenty years or so, and it does me good to think of one."

So we thought that there was little fear of the Welshman.

When I came back from this errand, however, I chose to pass the mound where my father slept, and on it, hand in hand, sat Havelok and Goldberga -- for it was a quiet place, and none came near it often. It was good to see them thus in that place, and happy they seemed together.

Goldberga called me when I came near, and I sat down beside them as she bade me.

"Here we have been talking of what we shall do now, for it seems that to both of us are many things to hand," she said. "Good it would be if we could set them aside; but we were born to them, and we cannot let them be. And, most of all, here in this place we may not forget the duty that Grim would remind us of. Havelok must go to Denmark and win back his kingdom from Hodulf first of all."

"We have thought that East Anglia was to be won first from Alsi," I said.

"So says Havelok; but I do not think so. For, indeed, I am but the wife, and the things of the husband come first of all. Now, this is what I would say. Sail to Denmark before Hodulf knows what is coming, and there will be less trouble."

"I am slow at seeing things," said Havelok; "but the same might be said of your kingdom."

"Alsi is ready, and Hodulf is not," she answered, laughing; "any one can see that.

"Is it not so, brother?"

So it was; and I thought that she was right.

"Let us ask the brothers," I said, "for here are many things to be thought of; and, first of all, where to get men."

That was the greatest trouble to our minds, but none at all to hers.

"Get them in Denmark," she said, when we were all together in the great room of the house that evening. "Let us go as merchant folk, and find Sigurd, or his son if he is dead. If I am not much mistaken, all the land will rise for the son of Gunnar so soon as it is known that he has come again."

"Sigurd is yet alive," Arngeir said; "and more than that, he is waiting. For he promised Grim that he would be ready, and I heard the promise. I think that this plan is good, and can well be managed. Here is the ship that Griffin was to have taken today, and he is not here. Gold enough I have, for Grim hoarded against this time."

Then he showed us the store that, through long years, my father had brought together to take the place of that of Sigurd's which had been lost; and it was no small one. And so we planned at once; and in the end we three brothers were to go with Havelok and Goldberga, leaving Mord to get to Ragnar and tell him that Goldberga was following the fortunes of her husband, and would return to see to her own if all went well. Berthun would go with him, and Arngeir would bide at home, for we needed one to whom messages might come; and while none would know us now in Denmark, either Arngeir or Mord might be seen, and men would tell Hodulf that the men of Grim had come home, and so perhaps spoil all. Word might go to Denmark from Griffin even yet.

We had little thought of any sorry ending to our plans, for the dreams that had come so true so far cheered us. And so, with the evening tide of the next day, we sailed in the same ship that had been hired for Griffin.

But first Havelok spent a long hour on my father's mound alone, thinking of all that he owed to him who rested there. And to him came Goldberga softly, presently, lest he should be lonely in that place. And there she spoke to him of her own faith, saying that already he owed much to it. For he was making his vows to the Asir for success.

"Shall you pray yet again to the Asir, my husband?" she asked.

"Why should I? I have vowed my vows, and there is an end. If they heed them, all is well; and if not, the Norns hinder."

"There is One whom the Norns hinder not at all," she said gently, and so told him how that her prayers would go up every day.

Fain was she that he also prayed in that wise to her God, that naught might be apart in their minds.

Then he said, "I have heard this from David and Withelm also, and it is good. Teach me to vow to your God, sweet wife, and I will do so; and you shall teach me to pray as you pray."

So it came to pass that Havelok in the after days was more than ready to help the Christian teachers when they came to him; for that was how the vow that he made ran, that he would do so if he was king, and had the power.

Now there is nothing to tell of our voyage, for one could not wish for a better passage, if the ship was slow. Indeed, she was so slow that a smaller vessel that left Tetney haven on the next day reached the same port that we were bound for on the night that we came to our old home. And that we learned soon after she had come.

Into Sigurd's haven we sailed on the morning tide, and strange it seemed to me to see the well-known place unchanged as we neared it. My father's house was there, and Arngeir's, and the great hall of the jarl towered over all, as I remembered it. Men were building a ship in the long shed where ours had been built, and where the queen had hidden; and the fishing boats lay on the hard as on the day when Havelok had come to us. The little grove was yet behind our house, and it seemed strange when I remembered that the old stones of its altar were far beyond the seas. I wondered if Thor yet stood under his great ash tree; and then I saw one change, for that tree was gone, and in its place stood a watchtower, stone built, and broad and high, for haven beacon.

On the high fore deck stood Havelok, and his arm was round Goldberga as we ran in, but they were silent. The land held overmuch of coming wonder for them to put into words, as I think.

Presently the boats came off to us in the old way, and here and there I seemed to know the faces of the men, but I was not sure. It was but the remembrance of the old Danish cast of face, maybe. I could put no names to any of them. And as we were warped alongside the wharf, there rode down to see who we were Sigurd the jarl himself, seeming unchanged, although twelve years had gone over him. He was younger than my father, I think, and was at that age when a man changes too slowly for a boy to notice aught but that the one he left as a man he thought old is so yet. He was just the noble-looking warrior that I had always wondered at and admired.

We had arranged in this way: Havelok was to be the merchant, and we his partners in the venture, trading with the goods in the ship as our own. That the owner, who was also ship master, had agreed to willingly enough, as we promised to make good any loss that might be from our want of skill in bargaining. One may say that we bought the cargo, which was not a great one, on our own risk, therefore, hiring the vessel to wait our needs, in case we found it better to fly or to land elsewhere presently. Then Havelok was to ask the jarl's leave to trade in the land, and so find a chance to speak with him in private. After that the goods might be an excuse for going far and wide through the villages to let men know who had come, without rousing Hodulf's fears.

And as we thought of all this on the voyage, Goldberga remembered that it was likely that Sigurd would know again the ring that had been the queen's, and she said that it had better be shown him at once, that he might begin to suspect who his guest was. For we knew that he was true to the son of Gunnar, if none else might still be so.

This seemed good to us all; and, indeed, everything seemed to be well planned, though we knew that there are always some happenings that have been overlooked. We thought we had provided against these by keeping the ship as our own to wait for us, however, and it will be seen how it all worked out in the end.

Now Havelok went ashore as soon as the ship was moored; and the moment that he touched land he made a sign on his breast, and I think that it was not that of the hammer of Thor, for Goldberga watched him with bright eyes, and she seemed content as she did so. He went at once to where the jarl sat on his horse waiting him, and greetings passed. I was so used to seeing men stare at my brother that I thought little of the long look that Sigurd gave him; but presently it seemed that he was mightily taken with this newcomer, for he came on board the ship, that he might speak more with him and us.

"Presently," he said, "you must come and dine with me at my hall; for the lady whom I saw as you came in will be weary, and a meal on shore after a long voyage is ever pleasant. Now what is your errand here?"

"Trading, jarl," answered Havelok.

"I thought you somewhat over warlike-looking for a merchant," said Sigurd; "what is your merchandise?"

"Lincoln cloth, and bar iron, and such like; and with it all one thing that is worth showing to you, jarl, for I will sell it to none but yourself."

Now we went aft slowly, and presently Havelok and the jarl were alone by the steering oar, by design on our part.

"This seems to be somewhat special," said Sigurd. "What is it?"

Havelok took the ring from his pouch, and set it in the jarl's hand without a word; and long Sigurd looked at it. I saw the red on his cheek deepen as he did so, but he said never a word for a long time. And next he looked at Havelok, and the eyes of these two met.

"This is beyond price," said the jarl slowly. "Not my whole town would buy this. It is such as a queen might wear and be proud of."

"Should I show it to Hodulf the king, therefore?" asked Havelok, with his eyes on those of the jarl.

"Let no man see it until I know if I can buy it," answered Sigurd. "Trust it to my keeping, if you will, for I would have it valued maybe."

"It is my wife's, and you must ask her that."

Then Havelok called Goldberga from her cabin under the after deck, and the jarl greeted her in most courtly wise.

"I will trust it with you, Jarl Sigurd," she said, when he asked her if he might keep the ring for a time. "Yet it is a great trust, as you know, and it will be well to show the ring to none but men who are true."

"It is to true men that I would show it," he answered, with that look that had passed between him and Havelok already; and I was sure that he knew now pretty certainly who we were. Yet he could not say more at this time, for the many men who waited for Havelok must be told somewhat of his coming first.

Now men were gathering on the wharf to see the newcomers, and so the jarl spoke openly for all to hear.

"Come up to my hall, all of you, and take a meal ashore with me; for good is the first food on dry land after days at sea and the fare of the ship."

So he