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Then they had to speak to Berthun about it, and he was kindly and willing to help; but he said that none might come to speak with the princess without leave from the king. No doubt he would grant it easily, if asked by Goldberga herself. "I will go and tell her," said the old lady. "Keep your man here till I return."
Then I helped up the nurse, who wept and muttered to herself; and so we started, Alsi standing on the steps with words of feigned goodspeed as we did so. But the housecarls and the people shouted with wishes that were real, no doubt thinking that we were bound for the far-off kingdom of the prince who had won Goldberga by service as a kitchen knave in her uncle's hall for very love of her.
On right and left of our host sat Havelok and Goldberga, and the jarl's wife next to Havelok, and Biorn the Brown, the sheriff, next to our princess. This was a newcomer here since my days, but well we liked him.
Now Alsi set to work to gather forces in earnest, and he went to work in a way that was all his own: for, saying nothing about Goldberga, he sent to all his thanes with word that the Vikings had come in force and invaded the land, led by the son of Gunnar Kirkeban, whose ways were worse than those of his father, for he spared none, whereas Kirkeban harried but the Welsh Christian folk.
And I wearied to see one of the brothers, and hear all that was going on. There is no need for me to tell aught of the entry of the Lady Goldberga into the town, for anyone may know how the people cheered her, and how the party were met by the Norfolk thanes and many others, and so rode on up the hill to the palace.
Then David thought it was well to say naught to Havelok until more was learned from Goldberga herself, for he would soon see how things stood with her. Then he would see Withelm again, and they would plan together for the best. So Withelm waited for the return of the priest, whom Mord took to his mistress. Alsi and his men were supping in the hall, but Goldberga was waiting in her own chamber.
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.
There was great feasting that night in the king's hall, as one may suppose, and I sat with the housecarls at the cross tables beyond the fire, and I could see the Lady Goldberga at Alsi's side. Tired she was with her long journey, and she did not remain long at the table; but I had never seen so wondrously beautiful a lady.
So we went to certain battle, as it seemed, and none were sorry for that. So in the bright sunshine of a cloudless morning Havelok and Goldberga rode down the line of the men, who would fight to the death for them, and those two were good to look on. Day and night Sigurd's weapon smiths had wrought to make a mail shirt that should be worthy of a king, and I thought that they had wrought well.
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.
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