hen all of a sudden his command of himself gave way, and he
sat down on the bed and hid his face in his hands. With the passing
of the Anglians the strain had gone from him as from us, and he was
left with the bare terror of the deed he had half approved.

Presently he looked up, and the weakness had passed. Then he rose
and signed to me to follow him, and we went out into the council
chamber. And even as we closed the ill-fated rooms behind us, from
his own door came forth Quendritha and moved swiftly toward him.

"My king," she said, "they told me that somewhat was amiss."

"Ay," he said, and his words were like ice, "there is, and more
than amiss. Get you to your bower, and we will speak thereof in
private."

He did not look at her, and went to pass her, almost thrusting her
aside. And at that she gave a little plaintive cry, and would have
taken his arm, saying for us to hear that he was surely distraught.

"Thanes, tell me what is wrong!" she said.

"We have no need to tell you," said Sighard savagely, and unheeding
the warning grasp of the priest on his arm. "What has been done is
your doing."

"What mean you?" she flashed on him with a terrible look.

Erling answered from where he stood with his back to the great
door, "So you spoke in our old land on the day when our Jarl Hauk
bade you confess the wrong you had done, before you were set adrift
on the sea. It had been better had he slain you, as some would have
had him slay, if it were but for the saving of this."

Now Offa had turned angrily as he heard Sighard speak to the queen
in no courteous wise, but Erling had not heeded his look or what
wrath might light on him. Before he could say aught, and it was
plain that he was going to speak angrily enough, Offa heard the
first words of the Dane, and checked himself.

And when he had heard, he said in a cold voice, slowly, "So that
tale is true after all. I can believe it now, though once I slew a
man who told it me."

With that he turned on his heel and passed through the door and was
gone, paying no more heed to the queen than to us. For a long
moment she stood and glared at Erling, and I think that she
remembered his face in some dim way, so that the old days came back
to her, and with that remembrance the terror that had been in them.
And as she stood there in the torchlight she seemed to have grown
old of a sudden, and her face was gray and lined, while her long
white hands worked as they fell at