Then there climbed on the bows of the trader a tall, handsome young man, at the sight of whom I could not withhold a cry of wonder, for I knew him well.  He was Ecgbert the atheling, nephew of our great king Ina, and the one man whom Bertric feared as a rival when he came to the throne.  His father and mine had been close friends, and we two had played and hunted together many a time, until the jealousy of Bertric drove him to seek refuge with Offa of Mercia.  I thought him there yet.

“Yield yourselves,” said Thorleif, “and we will speak in peace of ransom.  I will come on board with a score of men, and harm none.”

“We have yielded, seeing that there was no other chance for as,” said Ecgbert quietly.  “Come on board if you will, but on my word it is hardly worth your while.  We left in too great a hurry to bring much with us.”

“Whence are you, then, and whither bound?”

“From Mercia, by way of Southampton, and bound anywhere out of the way of Quendritha the queen.  We had a mind to go to Carl the king, but any port in a storm!”

“Well,” said Thorleif, laughing, “I am coming on board.  That must be a terrible dame of whom you speak, if she has set the fear of death on a warrior such as you seem to be.”

Then he bade the men haul on the cable, and the ships drew together slowly.  I had to leave the deck, being in the way of the men, and Ecgbert did not see me, as far as I could tell.

Thorleif and his men boarded the prize over her bows and went aft, Ecgbert going with them.  The two ships drifted apart again, and I found my place by Thrond once more, while the men sat on the gunwale, waiting for the time when their chief should return.

“Who is the queen yon Saxon speaks of?” asked Thrond.

I told him; and as we had heard much of her of late, I also told him how men said that she had been found on the shore by the king himself.  Whereon Thrond’s grave face grew yet more grave, and he said: 

“Lad, is that a true tale?”

“My father had it from the thane who was with the king when they found her alone in her boat.”

“So her name was not Quendritha when she began that voyage?”

“I have heard that she was a heathen.  Mayhap the king gave her the name when she was christened.  It means ‘the might of the king.’”

So I suppose that he did, for the hope of what his wife should be.  Nor was the name ill chosen, as it turned out, for all men knew by this time that the queen was the wisest adviser in all the council of Mercia in aught to do with the greatness of the kingdom.

“I have ever had it in my mind that she would get through that voyage in safety,” Thrond said.  “Ran would not have her.”

“What do you mean?”

“Lad, I saw her start thereon, or so I think.  Tell me when she was found.”

That I could do, within a very short time.  My father and Offa had been wedded in the same year, as I had heard him say but a few days ago, at Winchester, as men talked of the bride whom we had welcomed, Quendritha’s daughter.  And as he heard, Thrond’s face grew very dark.