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The Etheling's anger leaped out like a flame; even in the starlight it could be seen how his face crimsoned. "No, as God lives!" he answered swiftly. "It is not to Edmund alone that the Gainer is loathful. Should he pass the King's sword, a hundred blades wait for him, mine among them. Seek what he may seek, he shall not have peace of us.
Her son, Edward Etheling, the rightful heir of England, was treated by William not only with courtesy, but with affection; and allowed to rebel, when he did rebel, with impunity. For the descendant of Rollo, the heathen Viking, had become a civilized, chivalrous, Christian knight. His mighty forefather would have split the Etheling's skull with his own axe.
Four of the red-cloaked Danish nobles stood about her, and one of them wore a golden circlet upon the gold of his hair, but the Etheling's eyes passed them almost unheedingly to dwell upon the black-tressed maiden. Something about her, while it was entirely strange, was yet so absurdly familiar.
"And he is right, love, that I ought not to tell any one. It is another one of those things that you must trust." But for once the Etheling's will did not bend to her coaxing; his mouth was doggedly set as he looked down upon her.
This he has told to Herstan and others, but no further discovery has ensued. But another important matter has claimed our attention. The king left on Monday without making any efforts to profit by the Etheling's discovery at Carisbrooke; but we could not in conscience let the matter rest.
Contenting himself with an indignant grunt, he reined back to his place at the head of the dozen armed servants who formed the Etheling's safeguard, and the young lord galloped on between the bare fields, humming absently under his breath. "Poor bantling!" he was thinking compassionately. "I shall be right glad to get sight of him again.
Yet since Canute is once more free to beset London " He did not finish, and for a while it appeared as though he did not see the sunlit fields his eyes were resting on. But suddenly the boy broke in upon him with a burst of stifled laughter. "Look, lord! In yonder field, behind the third haycock!" The moment that he had complied, laughter banished the Etheling's meditations.
This time his inflection showed that he had finished. He turned his eyes from the hole and fastened them on the Lord of Ivarsdale, in the confidence of invincible power. The room was so still that when a gust came in around the ill-fitting windows, the flare of the torch-flames sounded loud as the hiss of serpents. The Etheling's voice was very deep and quiet.
It is not allowed me to take revenge on her for her treachery, but I think I need not spare you, as you got the profit of her falseness." The Etheling's sword was out while the other was still speaking. "By Saint Mary, do you imagine that I am fearful of you? Never in my life was I more thirsty for fighting." But Rothgar pushed the blade aside with his naked palm.
By obeying me in this, you will give the State help where it is most needed and hard to get." When that was out, he raised his head and met the Etheling's eyes squarely, and it was plain to each of them that the moment had come which must, once and forever, decide their future relations.
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