know how.

At that I seemed to see all the plot, and my heart sank within me,
for this Beorn was most crafty, and had planned well to throw doubt
on me if things by ill chance fell out as they had, and so I rode
in silence wondering what help should come, and whence. And I
thought of Halfden, and what he should think when he heard the tale
that was likely to be told him, and even as I thought this there
was a rushing of light wings, and Lodbrok's gray falcon--which I
had cast from my wrist as I fell on Beorn--came back to me, and
perched on my saddle, for my hands were bound behind me. She had
become unhooded in some way.

Then Beorn cried out to the men to take the falcon, for it was his,
and that he would not have her lost; and that angered me so that I
cried out on him, giving him the lie, and he turned pale as if I
were free and could smite him. Whereon the men bade us roughly to
hold our peace, and the leader whistled to the falcon and held out
his hand to take her. But she struck at him and soared away, and I
watched her go towards Reedham, and was glad she did so with a sort
of dull gladness.

For I would have no man pass through a time of thoughts such as
mine were as they took me to Caistor--rage and grief and fear of
shame all at once, and one chasing the other through my mind till I
knew not where I was, and would start as from a troubled dream when
one spoke, and then go back to the same again as will a sick man.
But by the time we reached Caistor I had, as it seemed to me,
thought every thought that might be possible, and one thing only
was plain and clear. I would ask for judgment by Eadmund the King,
and if that might not be, then for trial by battle, which the earl
would surely grant. And yet I hoped that Beorn's plot was not so
crafty but that it would fail in some way.

So they put me in a strong cell in the old castle, leading Beorn to
another, and there left me. The darkness came, and they brought me
food, so I ate and drank, being very hungry and weary; and that
done, my thoughts passed from me, for I slept heavily, worn out
both in body and mind.

CHAPTER VI. THE JUSTICE OF EARL ULFKYTEL.

An armed jailor woke me with daylight, bringing me food again, and
at first I was dazed, not knowing where I was, so heavy was my
sleep. Yet I knew that I woke to somewhat ill.

"Where am I?" I asked.

"Under Caistor walls, surely," he said; and I remembered all.

The man looked friendly enough