s, who stood in the position of civil
governor. They were told that the archbishop would receive the king in
his palace.

An hour later a stately figure in glittering armour was seen to take
his place in a long galley, which, rowed by twenty men, quickly shot
across the stream. Siegfroi landed, and, accompanied by four of his
leading warriors, entered the gates, which were opened at his approach.
The chief of the Northmen was a warrior of lofty stature. On his head
he wore a helmet of gold, on whose crest was a raven with extended
wings wrought in the same metal. His hair fell loosely on his neck; his
face was clean shaved in Danish fashion, save for a long moustache. He
wore a breastplate of golden scales, and carried a shield of the
toughest bull's-hide studded with gold nails.

He was unarmed, save a long dagger which he wore in his belt. He and
his followers, who were all men of immense stature, walked with a proud
and assured air between the lines of citizens who clustered thickly on
each side of the street, and who gazed in silence at these dreaded
figures. They were escorted by the chamberlain of the archbishop, and
on arriving at his palace were conducted into the chamber where Goslin,
Count Eudes, and several of the leading persons of Paris awaited them.

Siegfroi bent his head before the prelate.

"Goslin," he said, "I beg you to have compassion upon yourself and your
flock if you do not wish to perish. We beseech you to turn a favourable
ear to our words. Grant only that we shall march through the city. We
will touch nothing in the town, and we undertake to preserve all your
property, both yours and that of Eudes."

The archbishop replied at once:

"This city has been confided to us by the Emperor Charles, who is,
after God, the king and master of the powers of the earth. Holding
under his rule almost all the world, he confided it to us, with the
assurance that we should suffer no harm to come to the kingdom, but
should keep it for him safe and sure. If it had happened that the
defence of these walls had been committed to your hands, as it has been
committed to mine, what would you have done had such a demand been made
upon you? Would you have granted the demand?"

"If I had granted it," Siegfroi replied, "may my head fall under the
axe and serve as food for dogs. Nevertheless, if you do not grant our
demands, by day we will overwhelm your city with our darts, and with
poisoned arrows by night. You sh