made; and I longed to seeonce more the green marshes and the grey wolds of Lindsey, and the brownwaves of the wide Humber rolling shorewards, line after line. I tired ofthe heaths and forests and peat mosses of this land of my birth. And ifthat was so to me, it was a yet deeper longing in the hearts of thebrothers who hardly remembered this place; and after a while we spoke ofit more often.
I do not know if we said much to others, but at last the younger chiefsbegan to wonder when the promised time when they should cross the"swan's path" for Goldberga should come. Maybe they tired of the longpeace, as a Dane will. But when that talk began, Withelm knew thatthings were ripe, and he told Havelok. That was in the third spring ofHavelok's kingship, when it grew near to the time when men fit out theirships.
"This is what I have looked for," he said; "and now we will delay nolonger, for here am I king indeed, and there is none who will riseagainst me. Wonderful it is that men have hailed me thus. And now I willtell you, brother, that I long for England. If I might take my friendswith me, I do not think that I should care if I never came here again.It is not my home; and here my Goldberga is not altogether happy, wellas the folk love her."
Thereafter he called a great Thing[12] of all thefreemen in the land, and set the matter plainly before them, asking ifthey minded the words he spoke when they crowned the queen, and if theywere still ready to follow him to the winning of her crown beyond the sea.
There was no doubt what the answer would be; and it was said at oncethat the sooner the ships were got ready the better.
"Then," said Havelok, "who shall mind this land while I am away? It maybe long ere I come back."
Now there was a cry that I should be king while Havelok was away,forsooth! and a poor hand I should have made at the business. But I saidthat it was foolishness, and that, moreover, I would go with Havelok.And when they said that this was modesty on my part, I answered that Ihad seen several kings, and that there was but one who was worththinking of, and that was my brother; therefore, I would go on servinghim where I could see him.
"This is what Grim, my father, said to me long ago," I said--"I was tomind the old saying, 'Bare is back without brother behind it;' and,therefore, I must see Havelok safe through this."
"Why, brother," says Havelok, laughing, "if that saying must beremembered--and I at least know it is true--it would make forleaving you behind me here to see all fair when my back was turned."
Then he saw that I was grieved, for I thought for the moment that hewould bid me to stay, and so I should have to do so; but he took my part.
"I cannot be without my brothers," he said. "If I had any word in thematter--which mainly concerns the folk to be ruled, as it seems to me(for I do not know of any man who would not uphold me)--I should saythat Sigurd the jarl was the right man, for all know that he is a goodruler, nor will it be any new thing to submit to him."
That pleased all, and the end of it was that Sigurd was chosen to holdthe land for Havelok.
Then Sigurd sat on the steps of the high place at Havelok's feet, andthe king said, "I have no need to tell any man here who this is, and whyI think him worthy of the highest honour, for all know him and his worthas well as I. Mainly by him was the thought of my return kept in theminds of men, so that when the time came all were ready to hail me, asyou have done. Therefore, as by him I am king, so I make him king alsofor me. He shall rule all the land while I am away, and to him shall allmen account as to me. And because it is right that his kingship shouldbe certain, I give him all his jarldom as a kingdom from henceforth,only subject to me and my heirs as overlord. King therefore he is, andnone can say that you are ruled by naught but a jarl."
Then Havelok girt on the new king's sword, and set his own crowned helmon his head for a moment; and all the Thing hailed him gladly, for hewas the right man without doubt.
Then Sigurd did homage for his new honour; and after that he rose up,and grew red and uneasy, as if there was somewhat that he wished to say,and was half afraid to do so.
Thereat some friend in the hall said, "You take your kingship worse thandid Radbard himself, as it seems. What is amiss?"
"Why, I wanted to go on the Viking path with Havelok, and now it seemsthat I cannot."
Then one shouted, "I never heard of a land going wrong while its kingwas away risking his life to get property for his men. There is no manhere who is going to rise against either you or Havelok. And it is onlyto send a message to our great overlord to say what we are about, and hewill see that the land is in peace. Nor do I think that any king wouldharry Havelok's land, for he is well loved by all his peers."
Wherefore it seemed that Sigurd must go also, and we had to set Biorn ashead man while Sigurd was away; but that would only be for a month ortwo. So all things were ordered well, and in a month we set sail withtwenty ships, and in them a matter of fifteen hundred men.
At first we thought that we would make for Grimsby; but then it seemedbest to land elsewhere, and more to the south, for we would havemessages sent at once to Ragnar to call East Anglia to Havelok's banner,and Alsi would have less chance of cutting us off from him. So we sailedto Saltfleet haven, which lies some twenty-five miles southward fromGrimsby. Raven piloted us in safely, and there were none to hinder ourlanding. The town was empty, indeed, when the ships came into the haven,for all had fled in haste, except a few thralls, for fear of the Vikings.
Yet when we sent these thralls to say that Goldberga had come for herown, the people came back and made us welcome, for her story was inevery mouth; and after that we fared well in Saltfleet, and men began togather to us.
We sent to Arngeir and to Ragnar at once, and next day the Grimsby folkwere with us, but long before any word could come to Norwich, Alsi hadset about gathering a host against us.
But we had not come to fight him for Lindsey, and our errand was to bidhim give up her own rights to Goldberga. One must be ready with thestrong hand if one expects to find justice from such a man; and Havelokhad thought it possible that if we came here first we should bring himto reason at once, whereas if we went to Norfolk there would be fightingwith all the host of the Lindsey kingdom before long; while if he didfight here we might save Goldberga's land from that trouble, and maybehave fewer to deal with.
So a message was to be sent to Alsi at once, bidding him know thatGoldberga had come to ask for her rights, and that he might give them toher in all honour. Arngeir was to take this, for it did not seem rightthat a Dane should do so, and he was one who would be listened to. I wasto go with him, with my courtmen as guard; and we rode to Lincoln on thefourth day after our coming to Saltfleet. Good it was to ride over theold land again, and I thought that it had never looked more fair withthe ripening harvest, for when last I had seen it there was none. Thetrack of the famine was yet on all the villages, for fewer folk were inthem than in the days before the pestilence and the dearth, but thesehad enough and to spare.
And when these poor folk heard from us that Curan and his princess hadcome again for what was hers, they took rusty weapons and flint-tippedarrows and stone hammers from the hiding places in the thatch of theirhovels, and went across the marshlands to where the little hill ofSaltfleet stands above its haven, that they might help the one whom theyhad loved as a fisher lad to become a mighty king.
So we came to Lincoln, and already there was a gathering of thanes andtheir men in the town, and they knew on what errand we had come wellenough. But they were courteous, and we were given quarters in the townat once, that we might see Alsi with the first light in the morning.
I will not say that we had a quiet night there, for we did not trustAlsi; but we had no need to fear. In the morning Eglaf came to bid us tothe palace to speak with the king.
"This is about what I expected, when I heard of the mistake that ourking had made," he said, "and so far you are in luck. It is not everyonewho is a fisher one day and captain of the courtmen next, as one mightsay. I like the look of your men, and I am going to take some of thecredit of that to myself, for a man has to l
earn before he can command."
"I will not deny your share in the matter," I answered, laughing, "forhad it not been for my time with you I had been at sea altogether. Now,shall we have to fight you?"
He shrugged his broad shoulders.
"Who knows what is in the mind of our king? I do not, and you knowenough of him by this time to be certain that one cannot guess. He maybe all smiles and rejoicing that his dear niece has come back safely, orjust the other way. He has been very careful how he has dealt with theNorfolk thanes of late, and what that means I do not know."
Then he asked what had become of Griffin, and I told him. I do not thinkthat he was surprised, for some word of the matter had reached here bythe news that chapmen bring from all parts.
Now there was no more time for talk, for we came to the hall; and wewent in, Arngeir leading,