So Havelok smiled, and lifted his voice, and spoke.
“Stand by me, friends, as steadfastly as you
have fought against me, and I shall be well content.
And see, here is the queen for whom you will fight
also. There is not one of you but will play the
man under her eyes.”
Not many words or crafty, but men saw his face, and
heard that which was in the voice, and they needed
no word of reward to come, but shouted as we had shouted
when the bride came home to Grimsby, and I thought
that with the shout the throne of Hodulf was rocking.
Worn out we were with that long fight, and we all
had some small wounds —not much worth speaking
of; and when these were seen to, we slept. Only
my brother Raven waked, and he sat through all the
rest of the short night on the high place, with his
sword across his knees, watching, for he blamed himself,
overmuch as we all thought, for the happenings of
the attack.
“Trouble not, brother, for we were in the keeping
of Biorn, and he could not have dreamt that foes could
follow us over seas. It was not for you to be
on guard.”
These were Withelm’s words, but for once Raven
did not heed them.
“Would Grim, our father, have slept with a lee
shore under him, leaving a stranger to keep watch?
That is not how he taught me my duty; and I have been
careless, and I know it. I should have thought
of Griffin when I saw the ship come in.”
So he had his way, and the last that I saw ere my
eyes closed was his stern form guarding us; and when
I woke he was yet there, motionless, with far-off
eyes that noted the little movement that I made, and
glanced at me to see that all was well.
In the grey of the morning the first of the chiefs
to whom the arrow had sped began to come in; but the
jarl would not have Havelok waked, for he was greatly
troubled at the little wounds that had befallen this
long-waited guest. So the chiefs gathered very
silently in the great hall, and sat waiting while
the light broadened and shone, gleam by gleam, on
their bright arms and anxious faces. It was not
possible for those who had not yet seen Havelok to
be all so sure that it was indeed he. They longed
to see him, and to know him for the very son of Gunnar
for themselves.
Presently there were maybe twenty chiefs in the hall—men
who had fought beside Kirkeban, and men who had been
boys with Havelok, and some who had known his grandfather—and
the jarl thought that it was time that they had the
surety that they needed, for time went on, and there
was certainty that Hodulf must hear of all this morning.
One could not expect that no man would earn reward
by warning him.
So Sigurd went softly to the place where Havelok lay
in the little guest chamber that opened out of the
inner room that was the jarl’s own, and he slid
the boards that closed it apart gently and looked in
to wake him. But instead of doing that, he came
back to the hall and beckoned the chiefs, and they
rose and followed him silently. And when they
went Raven went also, without a word, that he might
be near his charge while these many strangers spoke
with him.
