looked a second time, for I thought him one of the noblest of all the
thanes who had yet come, and the second look told me that it was Havelok
in this new array. I will say that honest Berthun had done his part
well; and if the king was supposed to be the giver, he had nothing to
complain of. Eglaf had told me of the way in which the dressing of
Havelok was to be done.

"Ho!" said I, "I thought you some newcomer."

"I hardly know myself," he answered, "and I am not going to grumble at
the change, seeing that this is holiday time. Berthun came to me last
evening, and called me aside, and said that it was the king's wont to
dress his folk anew at the time of the Witan, and then wanted to know if
my vow prevented me from wearing aught but fisher's clothes. And when I
said that if new clothes went as wage for service about the place I was
glad to hear it, he was pleased, as if it had been likely that I would
refuse a good offer. So the tailor went to work on me, and hence this
finery. But you are as fine, and this is more than we counted on when we
left Grimsby. I suppose it is all in honour of the lady of the North
folk, Goldberga."

"Maybe, for I have heard that she is to come."

"To be fetched rather, if one is to believe all that one hears. They say
that Alsi has kept her almost as a captive in Dover, having given her
into the charge of some friend of his there, that she may be far from
her own kingdom and people. Now the Norfolk Witan has made him bring her
here. Berthun seems to think there will be trouble."

"Only because Alsi will not want to let the kingdom go from his hand to
her. But that will not matter. He is bound by the old promise to her
father."

Now we were talking to one another in broad Danish, there being none
near to hear us. We had always used it among ourselves at Grimsby, for
my father loved his old tongue. But at that moment there rode up to the
gate a splendid horseman, young and handsome, and with great gold
bracelets on his arms, one or two of which caught my eye at once, for
they were of the old Danish patterns, and just such as Jarl Sigurd used
to wear. But if I was quick to notice these tokens of the old land, he
had been yet quicker, for he reined up before I stayed him, as was my
duty if he would pass through this gate to the palace, so that I might
know his authority.

"If I am not mistaken," he said in our own tongue, "I heard you two
talking in the way I love best. Skoal, therefo