having so
often bought fish from him in the market; and there he sat down to talk
with the steward, for there was nothing much going on at the time, and I
was on guard.

Now, the old nurse went to her mistress; and Goldberga sat in the
shadow, and was weeping no longer, seeing that it would not help at all.

"There is a wonder down yonder," said the old lady, not seeing that
there had been any trouble yet--"such a man as I never saw in all my
days; and he even carried my goods up all the hill for me, old and ugly
as I am. That is not what every young man would do nowadays. Maybe it
was different when I was young, or else my being young made the
difference. The youth with him called him Curan, which is the name of
the strong porter they prate of, but doubtless that was a jest. This is
the most kingly man that could be; and I ween that those two made a
wager that he dared not carry a bundle up to the palace, whereby I was
the gainer, for breath grows short up that pitch. And when I thanked him
he bowed in that wise that can only come of being rightly taught when
one is young. Now, I am going to ask Berthun who he is, for he spoke to
him when he saw him, and that humbly, as it seemed."

So talked the nurse, and to all Goldberga answered never a word, for all
the trouble came back again, and with it the thought that she hated,
that if only--

Then, as the nurse was leaving her, she called her back.

"Nurse," she said, "I am in sore trouble about the dream. It bides with
me, and will not cease to puzzle me until I weary for some one to read
it plainly. I would that Queen Bertha's good chaplain were here, for I
might have been helped by him."

Then the nurse came back, quick to hear the sad tone in the voice of her
whom she had tended and loved since she was a child.

"Why, my pretty, have you been weeping?" she said. "There was naught in
a dream like that to fray you thus."

"Nay, but it has come to me that this place is altogether heathen; and
it may have come from the hand of Freya, the false fiend that they
worship as a goddess, so that I may be ready to wed a heathen. Is there
no Christian in all this place?"

"There are Welsh folk yet left in the marsh," said the nurse, pondering;
"and where there is a Briton there is a Christian, and there, also, will
be a hidden priest. But it would be as much as his life is worth to come
here, even could we find one."

Then Goldberga said, "Alsi is not altogether heathen.