wer was a lesser hall, which
joined the back of the great palace hall itself, and that there
were other buildings, which were not to be seen at first. It was
the greatest palace in all England, and I wished that the Franks,
who had little praise for our dwellings, had seen this before they
went back home. It is true that all was built of timber, while the
Franks used stone; but that last no Angle or Saxon cares for while
good oak and ash and chestnut are to be had.

I did not pay much heed to the place at the time when we rode in,
beyond a swift glance round me. There was that which held my eyes
from the first on the wide steps that led to the hall door. There
stood Offa and his queen to meet their guest, with the nobles of
Mercia round them in a wondrous gathering, blazing with colour, and
gold, and jewels, and the white horse banner of Mercia over them.

To right and left along the front of chapel and guest house were
lines of the scarred housecarls who had followed Offa and won the
land for him, bright with flashing helms and weapons; and close
behind the group on the steps were some black-robed priests, who
had a vested bishop in their midst.

So they waited while we dismounted, and then Ethelbert went forward
alone toward the king and queen, carrying his helm in his hand, and
with only a little golden circlet round his fair hair. I mind that
the bright sun flashed from it as he went till there seemed a halo
round his head, like to the ring of light they paint round the
heads of the saints in the churches. And I thought that even Offa
seemed less kingly than did he, though the great king was fully
robed and wearing his crown. I think he had on a white tunic with a
broad golden hem, and a crimson cloak fastened on his shoulder with
cross-shaped brooch, golden and gemmed, while his hose were of dark
blue, cross-gartered with gold.

And then I must look at the queen, and I saw the most wonderfully
beautiful lady who ever lived outside of a gleeman's tale, so that
hardly could Guinevere herself, King Arthur's queen, have been more
beautiful. She was tall and yet not thin, and her golden hair fell
in two long plaits almost to the ground over her pale green dress.
From her shoulders hung a cloak of deeper green, wondrously wrought
with crimson and gold and silver, and fastened with golden
brooches. She also wore her crown; but even if she had not had it,
none could mistake her for any but the queen among all the ladi