Havelok the Dane Part 37

"I have come from Goldberga of East Anglia, and from Havelok the Dane, her husband, to say that she has returned to her land, and would ask that you would give her the throne that you have held for her since the day that her father made you her guardian. It has been said that she might ask you to give account of your management of the realm to her; but that she does not wish to do, being sure that all will be rightly done in the matter, and she only asks to be set in the place that was her father's."

So said Arngeir, plainly, and I could see that the thanes thought the words good.

And Alsi answered, "Has this matter been put before the Witan of the East Angles?"

I suppose that he thought to hear Arngeir say that there had been no time for so doing at present, but my brother was readier than I should have been.

"Doubtless it has," he said, "for that was your own promise to Goldberga on her marriage."

At that Alsi flushed, and his brows wrinkled. He had said nothing to the Witan at all, but had waited in hopes that he should hear no more of his niece, telling the tale that we had heard.

"I have had no answer from them," he said at last, for Arngeir was looking at him in a way that he could not meet. "It was her saying that she would do this for herself."

"Then they do not refuse," said Arngeir quietly, "nor did I think that they would do so. It only remains therefore, that you, King Alsi, should do your part. Then can the queen speak to the Witan, even as she said, concerning her husband."

Now it must have been clear to the king that nothing short of a plain answer would be taken, and he sat and thought for a while. One could see that he was planning what to say, as if things had not gone as he expected. Maybe he hoped to put off the matter by talk of asking the Witan, and so to gain time, for we had certainly taken him unawares.

At last he said, "How am I to know that you are here with full power to speak for Goldberga? For this is a weighty matter."

Arngeir held out his hand, and on it was the ring of Orwenna the queen, which Alsi had last seen here on the high place.

"There is the token, King Alsi, and it is one which you know well," he answered.

"Ay, I know it," answered the king with a grin that was not pleasant.

And then he said, "I will speak with my thanes, and give you word to carry back in an hour's time, now that I know you to be a true messenger."

"There should be no reason for waiting so long as that, nor do I think that the matter of the throne of East Anglia is a question for Lindsey thanes," answered Arngeir at once. "All this is between you and the princess."

Thereat one of the thanes rose up and said, "If a kingdom has been handed over to our king, it is not to be taken again without our having a good deal to say about it. I do not know, moreover, if we can have a foreigner over any part of our land."

"Goldberga never gave up her right to the kingdom," Arngeir answered, "as anyone who was here at the wedding would tell you. And as for Havelok, her husband, being a foreigner, it seems to me that a Jute who has been brought up here in Lindsey since he was seven winters old is less a foreigner than a Briton is to us."

None made any answer to that, and I could see that the king was growing angry at being met thus at every turn. But he began to smile in that way of his that I had learned to mistrust.

"That is not altogether courteous to either Goldberga or myself," he said, as if he would think the words a jest, seeing that he was half Welsh. "Give me time, I pray you, to think of this, as I have asked, and you shall go back with your answer."

There was no help for it, and we had to leave the hall in order that Alsi might say what he had to say to his thanes. And I said to Arngeir that it seemed that we should have to fight the matter out.

"Alsi risks losing both kingdoms if he does that," he answered, "for we shall take what we choose if we are the victors. The visions that have been thus right so far say that we shall be so."

"I shall be glad if we do come out on the right side," I said; "but I have not so much faith in these dream tellings as some. Nor do I think that it seems altogether fair to fight on a certainty."

"When it is a matter of punishing one who does not keep faith, I do not think that it matters much," he answered, laughing. "I should like certainty that he would not get the best of the honest side in that case."

We were outside on the wide green within the square of the Roman walls at this time, and now from within the hall came the sound of shouts and cheering which we heard plainly enough. But whether it meant that the thanes cheered Alsi because he would fight, rather than that they applauded his justice to his niece, was not to be known as yet. As for me, I thought that it was hardly likely to be the latter.

Then came three thanes from the hail with the message, and it was this, "Alsi bids Havelok go back to his own land and bide content therewith."

"What word is there for Goldberga, then?" asked Arngeir.

"None. She has thrown in her lot with the Dane, and it is he with whom we will not deal."

Then said I, "How was it that she had to throw in her lot with Havelok? He was Alsi's own choice for her."

"That is not what we have heard," the spokesman answered. "Now it is best that you go hence, for you have the answer."

"This means fighting for Goldberga's rights," said Arngeir, "and I will tell you that Havelok will not be backward in the matter."

"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.

Now Alsi set to work to gather forces in earnest, and he went to work in a way that was all his own: for, saying nothing about Goldberga, he sent to all his thanes with word that the Vikings had come in force and invaded the land, led by the son of Gunnar Kirkeban, whose ways were worse than those of his father, for he spared none, whereas Kirkeban harried but the Welsh Christian folk. He prayed them therefore to hasten, that this scourge might be driven back to the sea whence he came. And that brought men to him fast, for no Englishman can bear that an invader shall set foot on his sh.o.r.e, be he who he may. Few knew who the wife of Havelok was at that time, but I do not know that it would have made so much difference if they had. None thought that into England had come the fair princess who was so well loved.

Sorely troubled was Goldberga when she heard this answer, but it was all that the rest of us looked for. And the next question was how best to meet the false king.

In the end we did a thing that may seem to some to have been rash altogether, but it was our wish to compel Alsi to fight before his force was great enough to crush us. It might be long before Ragnar could raise a host and join us, for there was always a chance that he might have trouble in getting the Norfolk thanes to come to his standard for a march on Lindsey. If we had gone to Norfolk at once there would have been no fear of that kind, but the fighting might have been more bitter and longer drawn out.

We sent the fleet southward into the Wash, that it might wait for us at the port of the Fossd.y.k.e, on what men call the Frieston sh.o.r.e; and then we left Saltfleet and marched across country to the wolds, and southward and westward along them, that we might draw Alsi from Lincoln. And all the way men joined us for the sake of Curan, whom they knew, and of Goldberga, of whom they had heard, so that in numbers at least our host was a great one. Ragged it might be, as one may say, with the wild marshmen, who had no sort of training and no chiefs to keep them in hand; but I knew that no host Alsi could get together had any such trained force in it as we had in the fifteen hundred Vikings, for they had seen many fights, and the ways of the sea teach men to hold together and to obey orders at once and without hesitating.

So we went until we came to Tetford, above Horncastle town; and there is a great camp on a hilltop, made by the British, no doubt, in the days when they fought with Rome. There we stayed, for Alsi was upon us. We saw the fires of his camp in the village and on the hillsides across the valley, but a mile or two from us that night; and it seemed that his host was greater than ours, as we thought it would be, but not so much so as to cause dread of the battle that was to come.

Now there were two men who came to us that night, and we thought that they had brought some message from Alsi at first. But all that they wanted was to join Havelok, and we were glad of them. They were those two seconds of Griffin's, Cadwal and the other, whose name was Idrys, and with them was David the priest, who had fled to us.

"We know that Havelok is one who is worth fighting for," they said, "for we have proved it already. We are not Alsi's men, and our fathers fought for his mother's Welsh kin against the English long ago. Let us fight for the rights of Goldberga, at least."

Havelok welcomed them in all friendliness, though he asked them if they had no grudge against him for the slaying of Griffin.

"As to that," they said, "after the duel we think that he deserved all that has befallen him. We were ashamed to be his seconds."

Now these two took in hand to lead the marshmen, and set to work with them at once, for they were ready to follow them as known thanes of the British. And that was something gained.

We slept on our arms that night, and all night long David woke and prayed for our success, and I think that his prayers were not lost.

CHAPTER XXIII. BY TETFORD STREAM.

In the early morning Alsi set his men in order in the valley, and seemed to wait for us to come down to him, for it was of no use to try to take the strong camp which sheltered us. And so, after council held, we did not keep him waiting, but left the hill and marched on him. We had the camp to fall back on if things went the wrong way, and beyond that the road to the sea and the ships was open, with a chance of meeting Ragnar on the way, moreover.

Very long and deep seemed the line as we neared it, and it was formed on the banks of a stream that runs down the valley, so that we must cross the water to attack. But the stream was shallow now with the August heat, and it was not much sunk between its banks.

When he saw that, Sigurd, who was a man of many fights, said that we had better send the marshmen round to fall on the wings of the foe, while we went straight for the centre of the line in the wedge formation that the Viking loves. For so we should have no trouble in crossing the stream, and should cut the force against us in two.

So the two Welsh thanes led their wild levies out on either side of us Danes, who were in the centre, and then we formed the wedge. Havelok himself would have gone first of all at its point: but that we would not suffer, for if he fell the battle was lost at its beginning.

"Nay," he said, "for we fight for Goldberga."

"And what would she say were we to set you foremost of us all?" asked Withelm. "Little love were there to either of you in that. You are the heart of the host, and one shields that although it gives strength to all the hands which obey it."