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

my duty; and I have been careless, and I know it. I should have thought of Griffin when I saw the ship come in."

So he had his way, and the last that I saw ere my eyes closed was his stern form guarding us; and when I woke he was yet there, motionless, with far-off eyes that noted the little movement that I made, and glanced at me to see that all was well.

In the grey of the morning the first of the chiefs to whom the arrow had sped began to come in; but the jarl would not have Havelok waked, for he was greatly troubled at the little wounds that had befallen this long-waited guest. So the chiefs gathered very silently in the great hall, and sat waiting while the light broadened and shone, gleam by gleam, on their bright arms and anxious faces. It was not possible for those who had not yet seen Havelok to be all so sure that it was indeed he. They longed to see him, and to know him for the very son of Gunnar for themselves.

Presently there were maybe twenty chiefs in the hall--men who had fought beside Kirkeban, and men who had been boys with Havelok, and some who had known his grandfather--and the jarl thought that it was time that they had the surety that they needed, for time went on, and there was certainty that Hodulf must hear of all this morning. One could not expect that no man would earn reward by warning him.

So Sigurd went softly to the place where Havelok lay in the little guest chamber that opened out of the inner room that was the jarl's own, and he slid the boards that closed it apart gently and looked in to wake him. But instead of doing that, he came back to the hall and beckoned the chiefs, and they rose and followed him silently. And when they went Raven went also, without a word, that he might be near his charge while these many strangers spoke with him.

Now Sigurd stood at the spot where the little shifting of the sliding board made it possible to see within the chamber, and one by one the chiefs came and peered through the chink for a moment, and stood aside for the next. And it was wondrous to see how each man went and looked with doubt or wonder or just carelessly, and then turned away with a great light of joy on his face and a new life in the whole turn and sway of the body.

It was dark in the chamber, save for the dim spaces under the eaves that let in the sweet air from the sea to the sleepers. But from somewhere aloft, where the timbering of the upper walls toward the east had shrunk, so that there was a little hole that faced the newly-risen sun, came the long shaft of a sunbeam that pierced the darkness like a glorious spear, and lit on the mighty shoulder of Havelok that lay bare of covering, and on the white hand of Goldberga that was across it. And on the one they saw the crimson bent-armed cross that was the mark of the line whence he and his father had sprung, and on the other glowed and flashed the blood-red stone of the ring of Eleyn the queen. And round that circle of sunshine was light enough for the chiefs to see those two noble faces, and they were content.

"Gunnar's son," said one old chief: "but were he only the son of Grim, for those twain would I die."

So the warriors crept back to the hall silently as they had come; and now they went out to their men and told them that all doubt had gone, and along the road that led to Hodulf's town the jarl sent mounted men to watch for his coming. And always fresh men were pouring in, and among them went the chiefs who had seen Havelok, and told them the news.

Now it was not long before there was a gathering of all the chiefs in the hall of Sigurd, that they might break their fast, and then they saw Havelok as he led in the princess to meet them. He stood on the high place in his arms, and a shout of greeting went up; and when it was over, Sigurd asked him to tell all that had happened to him; and he did that in as few words as might be, for he was no great speaker, though what he did say was always to the point, and left little to be asked.

And when he had ended, there rose up a grey-headed old chief, and said, "Give this warrior the horn of Gunnar, that we may hear him wind it. I would not say that unless I were sure that he was the right man to have it."

Now I stood beside Havelok, and while Sigurd went from the hall to some treasure chamber to get this that had been asked for, I said to him, "Mind you the day when we met Ragnar. and a call came into your dream? Wind that call now; for, if I am not wrong, it will be welcome to those who knew your father."

"I mind the day but not the call. I have never remembered it since," he said, and I was sorry.

Sigurd brought the horn, and it was a wondrous one, golden and heavy. It seemed to be a hunting horn, not very long, and little curved, but from end to end it was wrought with strange figures of men and beasts in rings that ran round it.

"Have you seen this before?" asked Sigurd wistfully, and looking into Havelok's face as he gave it into his hand.

One could feel that men waited his answer, and it came slowly.

"Ay, friend, I am sure that I have, but I cannot yet say when or where. I am sure that it is not the first time that I have had it in my hand."

And as he said this, Havelok's face flushed a little, and his brow wrinkled as if he tried to bring back the things of that which he had thought his dream for so long.

It would seem that in the years there had grown up a tale that this was a magic horn, which none but the very son of Gunnar could wind, and to the chiefs who saw Havelok now for the first time this was a test to prove him. But all knew that the words he spoke of it were proof enough, for a pretender would have said plainly that it had been Gunnar's, and that he knew it. I think that Sigurd was wise in what he did next, for he set another horn in my brother's hand, and asked him the same question; and at this Havelok looked for a moment and shook his head.

"I have not seen that one before, nor one like it. I am sure that I have seen this, or its fellow."

At that the faces that watched brightened, for there was no doubt in the way that Havelok spoke; and then the old chief who had asked for the horn said, "That--'The horn of the king is sounding'--was the gathering word of the night that has brought us here, and long have we waited for it. Let Havelok wind his father's horn, that we may hear it once again."

Then Havelok set it to his lips, and at once the call that he had remembered came back to him, and clear and sweet and full of longing its strange notes rang under the arched roof, unfaltering until the last; and then over him came the full remembrance of all that it had been to him, and he turned away from the many eyes and sank on the high seat, and set his head in his arms on the table, that men might not see that he needs must weep; and Goldberga stepped a little before him, and set her hand on his, for I think that she knew the loneliness that came on him.

Yet he was not alone in his sorrow, for down in the hall were men to whom the lost call brought back the memory of a bright young king riding to his home, and calling the son whom he loved with the call that he had made for him alone; and they saw the fair child running from the hall, and the mother following more slowly with smiles of welcome; and they saw the grim courtmen, who looked on and were glad; and they minded how they had lifted the boy to the war saddle; and their eyes grew hot with tears also, and they had no need to be ashamed.

And as men stood motionless, with the last notes of the wild horn yet ringing in their ears, there drifted a shadow across the days, and, lo! beside Havelok, with his hand on his shoulder, stood the form of Gunnar the king for a long moment, bright as any one of us who lived, in the morning sunlight, and his face was full of joy and of hope and promise for the time to come. And then he passed, but as he faded from us his hand was on the hand of Goldberga that clasped her husband's, as though he would wed them afresh there on the high place of his friend's hall.

Now there went a sigh of wonder among the chiefs, and Havelok looked up as if he followed the going of one whom he would not lose, and I know that he saw Gunnar after he was unseen to us.

"Surely," he said, "surely that was my father who was here?"

And Sigurd answered, "With your own call you called him, and he was here."

But now the last lurking doubt was gone, and there was no more delay, for the chiefs crowded with shouts of joy to the high place, and they knelt to Havelok and hailed him as king then and there; and so they led him to the great door of the hall, and the mightiest of them raised him high on a wide shield before all the freemen who waited on the green that is round the jarl's house, and they cried, "Skoal to Havelok the king!"

And there was in answer the most stirring shout that a man may hear-- the shout of a host that hail the one for whom they are content to die.

That was the first day of the reign of Havelok the king; and now there were two kings in the land, and one was loved as few have been loved, and the other was hated. And one was weak in men, as yet, while the other was strong.

Now Sigurd bade all those who were present gather in solemn Thing, that they might make Havelok king indeed; and that was a gathering of all the best in our quarter of the land, so that all would uphold what they had done. And when they were gathered in the great hall in due order, the doors were set wide open, and outside the freemen who followed the chiefs sat in silence to see what they might and hear.

Then swore Havelok to keep the ancient laws and customs, and to do even-handed justice to all men, and to be bound by all else that a good king should hold by. Sometimes these oaths are not kept as well as they might be, but I was certain that here was one who