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"Would that it were the dream, for that is not all of sorrow, and that also is of things so long past that they are forgotten. I can bear that, for your voice always drives it away. But now the hand of Alsi the king is on me for some ill of his own " "Stay," said Withelm. "Let us go out and speak, if that name is to be heard. It were safer." "Less safe, brother," answered Havelok.

The two hosts stood, with the narrow water between them, and glared on each other, silent now. And then the bowmen began to get to work from either side, until the arrows were all gone. Now Havelok called to the foe, and they were silent while he spoke to them. "Is Alsi yet alive?" he said; "for if not, I have no war with his men. If he is, let me speak with him."

And that was what Alsi would have liked to hear, for his speech seemed to say that thus it was, and maybe that he did not altogether like the choice. But now Alsi said to Berthun, "Bring in the bridegroom." "Whom shall I bring, lord?" the steward asked in blank wonder, and Alsi whispered his answer. At that Berthun's hands flew up, and his mouth opened, and he did not stir.

Now Griffin curses Ragnar, and the Welsh tongue is good for that business. "Who is the man, then?" he says, when he has done. "The biggest and best-looking countryman of yours that I have ever set eyes on," answers Alsi, looking askance at Griffin's angry face. "There is a sort of consolation for you." "His name," fairly shouts Griffin. "Curan, the kitchen knave," says Alsi, chuckling.

"In that case we shall meet again on the battlefield ere long," answered the thane. "I will not say that Havelok is in the wrong, and things might have been better settled. Farewell till then. The Norns will show who is right." So we went, and I thought, as did Arngeir, that there was some little feeling among his men that Alsi was wrong.

I looked down the hall, and none were present. Now I looked at Alsi; and on his pale face was a smile that might have been as of one who will be glad, though he does not feel so. But the eyes of the princess were bright with tears, and hardly did she look from the floor. Hers was a face to make one sad to see at that time, wondrously beautiful as it was.

But that danger was surely over now, for Havelok would be forgotten in Denmark; and Ethelwald was long dead, and his wife also, leaving his daughter Goldberga to her uncle Alsi, as his ward. So Alsi held both kingdoms until the princess was of age, when she would take her own.

"He must have come too late, and after I had heard of this from others; so I had already gone to meet the princess. I am glad that I was sent for, and it may pass. Well, it is lucky that I was in time, for we were attacked on the road, and but for my men there would have been trouble." Then Alsi broke into wrath, which was real enough. "This passes all.

We walked away from the tent and across the hillside for some way, and then he said without more words, "This is the message that Alsi sends to Havelok, whose name was Curan. 'Forgive the things that are past, for many there are that need forgiving. I have no heir, and it is for myself that I have schemed amiss. In Lincoln town lies a great treasure, of which Eglaf and I alone know.

"Go, fool," said Alsi, and I thought that he would have stamped his foot. Now I knew who was meant in a moment, and even as the steward took his first step from off the dais to go down the hail to his own entrance, I said to Eglaf, "Here is an end to my service with you. My time is up." "Why, what is amiss?" "The bridegroom is my brother that is all; and I must be free to serve him as I may."