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But a less practised diplomat than the great Countess might have speculated reasonably on such an event. At least, let this be said, that when historians have complained of the treachery of King Swend Ulfsson and his Danes, they have forgotten certain broad and simple facts. Swend sailed for England to take a kingdom which he believed to be his by right; which he had formerly demanded of William.
"I have so heard, my lord." "Then I command, I, Hereward, Lord of Bourne! that this abbey be held against him and all Frenchmen, in the name of Swend Ulfsson, king of England, and of me. And he that admits a Frenchman therein, I will shave his crown for him so well, that he shall never need razor more. This I tell thee; and this I shall tell your monks before I go.
"Do they expect Swend Ulfsson, who never moved a finger yet, unless he saw that it would pay him within the hour, to spend blood and treasure in putting that puppet boy upon the throne instead of himself?" "Calm yourself, great Countess," said Hereward, with a smile. "The man who puts him on the throne will find it very easy to take him off again when he needs." "Pish!" said Gyda.
Sweyn Ulfsson offers to every one of you, who will come to Denmark with him, shelter and hospitality till better times shall come." Then arose a mixed cry. Some would go, some would not. Some of the Danes took the proposal cordially; some feared bringing among themselves men who would needs want land, of which there was none to give.
To have sent thee feet foremost to Winchester, to lie by thy grandfathers and great-grandfathers, and then to tell Norman William that he must fight it out henceforth, not with a straw malkin like thee, which the very crows are not afraid to perch on, but with a cock of a very different hackle, Sweyn Ulfsson, King of Denmark." And Hereward drew Brain-biter.
And unless you obey the same, my dream will be fulfilled; and you will see Goldenbregh in a light low, and burning yourselves in the midst thereof." "Swend Ulfsson? Swend of Denmark? What words are these?" cried Brand. "You will know within six months, uncle." "I shall know better things, my boy, before six months are out." "Uncle, uncle, do not say that." "Why not?
And thou art Swend Ulfsson, the king?" "I am Earl Osbiorn, his brother." "Then, where is the king?" "He is in Denmark, and I command his fleet; and with me are Canute and Harold, Sweyn's sons, and earls and bishops enough for all England." This was spoken in a somewhat haughty tone, in answer to the look of surprise and disappointment which Hereward had, unawares, allowed to pass over his face.
Whereon Thorold abode at Stamford, and kept up his spirits by singing the songs of Roland, which some say he himself composed. A week after that, and the Danes were come. A mighty fleet, with Sweyn Ulfsson at their head, went up the Ouse toward Ely. All the chivalry of Denmark and Ireland was come. And with it, all the chivalry and the unchivalry of the Baltic shores.
And Sweyn Ulfsson rose again, and said with a great oath, "That if there had been three such men as Hereward in England, all would have gone well." Hereward laughed. "Thou art wrong for once, wise king. We have failed, just because there were a dozen men in England as good as me, every man wanting his own way; and too many cooks have spoiled the broth.
I little thought that I should have lost in five years so much of those small wits which I confessed to, that I should come after all to take England, and find two kings in it already, both more to the English mind than me. While William the Frenchman is king by the sword, and Edgar the Englishman king by proclamation of Danish Earls and Thanes, there seems no room here for Sweyn Ulfsson."
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