Havelok The Dane by Charles Whistler (freenovel24 .TXT) 📖

owed much to it. For he was making his vows to the Asir for success.

"Shall you pray yet again to the Asir, my husband?" she asked.

"Why should I? I have vowed my vows, and there is an end. If they heed them, all is well; and if not, the Norns hinder."

"There is One whom the Norns hinder not at all," she said gently, and so told him how that her prayers would go up every day.

Fain was she that he also prayed in that wise to her God, that naught might be apart in their minds.

Then he said, "I have heard this from David and Withelm also, and it is good. Teach me to vow to your God, sweet wife, and I will do so; and you shall teach me to pray as you pray."

So it came to pass that Havelok in the after days was more than ready to help the Christian teachers when they came to him; for that was how the vow that he made ran, that he would do so if he was king, and had the power.

Now there is nothing to tell of our voyage, for one could not wish for a better passage, if the ship was slow. Indeed, she was so slow that a smaller vessel that left Tetney haven on the next day reached the same port that we were bound for on the night that we came to our old home. And that we learned soon after she had come.

Into Sigurd's haven we sailed on the morning tide, and strange it seemed to me to see the well-known place unchanged as we neared it. My father's house was there, and Arngeir's, and the great hall of the jarl towered over all, as I remembered it. Men were building a ship in the long shed where ours had been built, and where the queen had hidden; and the fishing boats lay on the hard as on the day when Havelok had come to us. The little grove was yet behind our house, and it seemed strange when I remembered that the old stones of its altar were far beyond the seas. I wondered if Thor yet stood under his great ash tree; and then I saw one change, for that tree was gone, and in its place stood a watchtower, stone built, and broad and high, for haven beacon.

On the high fore deck stood Havelok, and his arm was round Goldberga as we ran in, but they were silent. The land held overmuch of coming wonder for them to put into words, as I think.

Presently the boats came off to us in the old way, and here and there I seemed to know the faces of the men, but I was not sure. It was but the remembrance of the old Danish cast of face, maybe. I could put no names to any of them. And as we were warped alongside the wharf, there rode down to see who we were Sigurd the jarl himself, seeming unchanged, although twelve years had gone over him. He was younger than my father, I think, and was at that age when a man changes too slowly for a boy to notice aught but that the one he left as a man he thought old is so yet. He was just the noble-looking warrior that I had always wondered at and admired.

We had arranged in this way: Havelok was to be the merchant, and we his partners in the venture, trading with the goods in the ship as our own. That the owner, who was also ship master, had agreed to willingly enough, as we promised to make good any loss that might be from our want of skill in bargaining. One may say that we bought the cargo, which was not a great one, on our own risk, therefore, hiring the vessel to wait our needs, in case we found it better to fly or to land elsewhere presently. Then Havelok was to ask the jarl's leave to trade in the land, and so find a chance to speak with him in private. After that the goods might be an excuse for going far and wide through the villages to let men know who had come, without rousing Hodulf's fears.

And as we thought of all this on the voyage, Goldberga remembered that it was likely that Sigurd would know again the ring that had been the queen's, and she said that it had better be shown him at once, that he might begin to suspect who his guest was. For we knew that he was true to the son of Gunnar, if none else might still be so.

This seemed good to us all; and, indeed, everything seemed to be well planned, though we knew that there are always some happenings that have been overlooked. We thought we had provided against these by keeping the ship as our own to wait for us, however, and it will be seen how it all worked out in the end.

Now Havelok went ashore as soon as the ship was moored; and the moment that he touched land he made a sign on his breast, and I think that it was not that of the hammer of Thor, for Goldberga watched him with bright eyes, and she seemed content as she did so. He went at once to where the jarl sat on his horse waiting him, and greetings passed. I was so used to seeing men stare at my brother that I thought little of the long look that Sigurd gave him; but presently it seemed that he was mightily taken with this newcomer, for he came on board the ship, that he might speak more with him and us.

"Presently," he said, "you must come and dine with me at my hall; for the lady whom I saw as you came in will be weary, and a meal on shore after a long voyage is ever pleasant. Now what is your errand here?"

"Trading, jarl," answered Havelok.

"I thought you somewhat over warlike-looking for a merchant," said Sigurd; "what is your merchandise?"

"Lincoln cloth, and bar iron, and such like; and with it all one thing that is worth showing to you, jarl, for I will sell it to none but yourself."

Now we went aft slowly, and presently Havelok and the jarl were alone by the steering oar, by design on our part.

"This seems to be somewhat special," said Sigurd. "What is it?"

Havelok took the ring from his pouch, and set it in the jarl's hand without a word; and long Sigurd looked at it. I saw the red on his cheek deepen as he did so, but he said never a word for a long time. And next he looked at Havelok, and the eyes of these two met.

"This is beyond price," said the jarl slowly. "Not my whole town would buy this. It is such as a queen might wear and be proud of."

"Should I show it to Hodulf the king, therefore?" asked Havelok, with his eyes on those of the jarl.

"Let no man see it until I know if I can buy it," answered Sigurd. "Trust it to my keeping, if you will, for I would have it valued maybe."

"It is my wife's, and you must ask her that."

Then Havelok called Goldberga from her cabin under the after deck, and the jarl greeted her in most courtly wise.

"I will trust it with you, Jarl Sigurd," she said, when he asked her if he might keep the ring for a time. "Yet it is a great trust, as you know, and it will be well to show the ring to none but men who are true."

"It is to true men that I would show it," he answered, with that look that had passed between him and Havelok already; and I was sure that he knew now pretty certainly who we were. Yet he could not say more at this time, for the many men who waited for Havelok must be told somewhat of his coming first.

Now men were gathering on the wharf to see the newcomers, and so the jarl spoke openly for all to hear.

"Come up to my hall, all of you, and take a meal ashore with me; for good is the first food on dry land after days at sea and the fare of the ship."

So he went across the gangway, and to his horse, and rode away quickly, calling back to us, "Hasten, for we wait for you. And I will find you lodgings in the town for the time that you bide with us."

Now at first that seemed somewhat hazardous, for we had meant to stay in the ship, lest we should have to fly for any reason suddenly. But it seemed that we had no choice but to do as he bade us, and we could not doubt him in any way. We should go armed, of course, as in a strange place; and, after all, unless Hodulf heard of us, and wanted to see us, he was not to be feared as yet. So I fell to wondering where our lodgings would he, and if the old families still dwelt in the houses that I had known, and then who had ours. Many such thoughts will crowd into the mind of one who sees his old land again after many years, and finds naught changed, to the eye at least.

Men have told me that, as we came into the hall presently, they thought us the most goodly company that had ever crossed its threshold; and that is likely, for at our head were Havelok and Goldberga. Raven was a mighty warrior to look on as he came next, grave and silent, with far-seeing grey eyes that were full of watching, as it were, from his long seafaring, and yet had the seaman's ready smile in them. And Withelm was the pattern of a well-made youth who has his strength yet to gather, and already knows how to make the best use of that he has. There were none but thought that he was the most handsome of the three sons of Grim. And last came I, and I am big enough, at least, to stand at Havelok's back; and for the rest, one remembers what Eglaf said of me. But I do not think that any noticed us with those twain to look at, unless they scanned our arms, which were more after the English sort than the Danish, so far as mail and helms are concerned, and therefore might seem strange.

The old hall was not changed at all; and handsome it seemed after Alsi's, though it was not so large. There were more and better weapons on the walls, and carved work was everywhere, so that in the swirl and heat-flicker of the torches the beams, and door posts, and bench ends, and the pillars of the high seat seemed alive with knotted dragons that began, and ended, and writhed everywhere, wondrous to look on. Our English have not the long winter nights, and cruel frosts, and deep snow that make time for such work as this for the men of the household.

There fell a silence as we came in, and then Sigurd greeted us; and we were set on the high seat, and feasted royally. 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,