d for the return of the priest,
whom Mord took to his mistress. Alsi and his men were supping in the
hall, but Goldberga was waiting in her own chamber.

Now the princess thought that, after her message to the king, she would
hear no more of the kitchen knave, and so was happier. But all the while
she pondered over her dream the thought of Havelok must needs come into
it, and that was troublesome. Nevertheless, it was not to be helped,
seeing that there was no doubt at all that he and the man of the vision
were like to each other as ever were twins. Wherefore if the thought of
one must be pleasant so at last must be that of the other. And then came
the nurse with tales of what Berthun thought of this man of his--how
that he was surely a wandering prince, with a vow of service on him,
like Gareth of the Round Table in the days of Arthur.

So presently it seemed to the princess that the churl was gone, as it
were, and in his place was a wandering atheling, at least, who was not a
terror at all. Then at length the slow time wore away until Mord came
with David the priest.

No priestly garb had the old man on, for that had made his danger
certain; but though he was clad in a thrall's rough dress, he was not to
be mistaken for aught but a most reverend man.

"Peace be with you, my daughter," he said; "it is good to look on the
child of Orwenna, the queen whom we loved."

Then the chamberlain left those two alone, and at once Goldberga told
the priest why she had asked him to run the risk of coming to her, for
there is no doubt that he was in peril, though not from Alsi himself.

At first she asked him many things about her mother, and learned much of
her goodness to the poor folk, and of their love to her; and presently,
when she grew more sure of the kindness and seeming wisdom of the
priest, she told him all her dream, adding no thoughts of her own, as
she mistrusted them.

Then said David, "There seems naught but good in this, and it is not
hard to unravel. I think that all shall come to pass even as it was told
you."

"I feared the heathen ways of the place, and thought that it might be
some snare of the old gods," said Goldberga.

But David told her that they could have no power on her, and asked her
if the king knew of the vision, that being one thing of which he was not
sure; and when he found that he did not, the whole affair seemed more
strange than before.

But now the princess asked him, "Plain were th