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Then they would have had Havelok forth to the people at once; but he bade them hearken for a moment, and said, taking Goldberga by the hand, "Were it not for this my wife, I do not think that I had been here today, and without her I am nothing. Now I am king by your word, and I think that I might bid you take her as queen.
Outside, the people were quiet for a little, wondering, no doubt, how to rescue Biorn. He wanted to go out to them, but it did not seem safe just yet. If they grew more reasonable it might be so. Then, as we rested thus, Goldberga came quickly, for she saw that her husband was wounded, and she began to bind his hurts with a scarf she had.
"Tell me now, and then I shall know better how to ask for what you need." But Goldberga could not bring herself to say what Alsi had threatened, and now felt sure that she would hear no more of that. So she told the nurse that she had vowed only to marry a king, and that Alsi had been angry, saying that kings were not so easily found. Also, that he was the man who had to find her a husband.
And then was a stir of feet near me, and a shadow across the trampled grass, and instead of the dead the voice of Havelok spoke softly to me, and with him was Goldberga, clad in her mail. And I thought that they and I were slain also, and I cried to this one who seemed to be one of Odin's maidens that I too would fain be stayed up with Cadwal and the rest, that I might have part in victory.
He had thought also for Goldberga, and she was sitting in the corner of the tower walls wrapped in a great cloak that she had used at sea, with her eyes on her husband, unfearing, and as it seemed waiting for the end that her dream foretold. I called the rest, and we looked down on the men. They saw us, and an arrow or two flew at us, badly aimed in the moonlight.
"Meaning that you had a good laugh over it;" and Alsi shook the earl's arm as in glee. "There now, you have made a clean breast, and I am not one to spoil sport. Go and meet Goldberga at the gates, and bring her to me in state, and you shall be lodged here, if you will. Quite right of you to tell me this, or Griffin would have been in trouble. But I must not have the lady scared again, mind you."
I was standing next to Eglaf, and he was at the foot of the dais, at the end of his line of men, so that I could see all plainly. Then came Alsi, leading the princess, and after Goldberga came her nurse. No other ladies were with her; and now I noticed that there was not one thane on the high place, which was strange, and the first time that such a thing had been since I came here.
Not long after Goldberga had gone, the king withdrew also, and then the hall grew noisy enough, and I could leave my place. But by that time Cadwal had left also; and next day, when I sought him, both he and Griffin were no longer in Lincoln, none knowing whither they had gone. So I troubled no more about them.
And so we planned at once; and in the end we three brothers were to go with Havelok and Goldberga, leaving Mord to get to Ragnar and tell him that Goldberga was following the fortunes of her husband, and would return to see to her own if all went well.
See, here is Ragnar of Norwich; he is worthy to be king, if any. Here, too, is the Earl of Chester, who led you. It will be well to set these two names before the host." "The host will have none but Havelok and Goldberga," they said. So the long-ago visions came to pass, and in a few days more we were feasting in the old hall at Lincoln.
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