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With whom does he talk?" "None come to seek him, lord, except one of the housecarls the big man to whom you spoke tonight. Seldom does he go into the town, and then only the porters seem to know him, for he was among them, as a stranger, when I met him first." "A big man will always make an acquaintance with another," Alsi said, "and the porters are the lowest in the place.
Steadily and firmly the solid line of the housecarls moved up the assent, and then as Harold's trumpet gave the signal of attack, flung themselves upon the shield-wall of the Norsemen. The conflict was a terrible one. The heavy two-handed axes of the English clashed against the long two-handed swords of the Norsemen.
The levies were lightly armed, and accustomed to fight in the same irregular manner as their Welsh adversaries, whom they held in considerable dread, for the fierce hillmen had again and again proved themselves more than a match for the peaceable natives on the English side of the border. The addition then of three hundred housecarls was required to give them confidence.
A few of the older men who were unfit to take part in a long day's fighting were to aid the women in their work. The arms of all the men were carefully inspected, and the weapons remaining in the armoury served out to those worst provided. At one o'clock the force marched off, Wulf riding at the head of the hundred housecarls, while the tenants, a hundred and fifty strong, followed in good order.
"The housecarls are as merry over the food they have brought with them as if they were going upon a march of pleasure through the hills, while the border levies evidently regard the business as a serious one." "That is no wonder," Beorn replied, "seeing how for years they have suffered at the hands of the Welsh. Look at those hills, Wulf, I can count a dozen beacons alight.
I will, however, on some excuse have half a score of Harold's housecarls placed under my orders, and sleeping or waking the king shall never be a moment unguarded. "I should not think it is likely that Fitz-Urse will have more than five or six men associated with him in such an enterprise.
A little chapel, cross crowned, stood on its left, and the guest house and guard rooms for the housecarls to the right, stretching across the centre of the camp where once the Roman huts had been. The hall was high and long, and had a wide porch and doorway in the end which faced the gate.
The contingents from Somerset and Dorset had already arrived, and without the delay of a single day the troops again started. The housecarls, although mounted, were not trained to fight on horseback. Their steeds were valuable only as enabling them to move with greater celerity across the country than they could do on foot, and to bring them fresh and in fighting condition to the scene of action.
When we had ended with song and tale, and it was near time for rest, Sigurd bade Biorn, the sheriff, take us to his house for the night, telling him that he must answer for our safety, and specially that of the fair lady who had come from so far. And then he gave us a good guard of his housecarls to take us down the street, as if he feared some danger.
By nightfall I shall be on my way back with every man on the estate, a hundred and fifty besides the housecarls, and two days' march will bring us here again. Ulf is well, I hope? I do not see him." "He has but carried home some arms I have been mending.
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