oyed, so that he ended those he meant to harm.

Then I called Erling, and we planned all that we might for going,
and after that we two went into the little church where lay
Ethelbert the king. There was silence in it, and little light save
for two tall tapers which burned at the head of the bier on which
he lay, but I could see that all had been made ready against his
showing to the people on the morrow. A priest sat on either side of
the bier's head, and one of them read softly, so that I had not
heard him at first. So I stood and looked in the face which was so
calm, and then knelt and prayed there for a little time.

When I rose I was aware for the first time that behind me knelt
Erling, but he did not rise with me. He stayed as he was, and in
the light of the tall tapers was somewhat which glistened on the
rough cheeks of the viking. I knew that he had been mightily taken
with the way of Ethelbert on our long ride with him; but he was
silent, and said little at any time of what his thoughts were. I
had not thought to see him so moved. Now he looked up at me as it
were wistfully, and spoke to me, yet on his knees:

"Master, this poor king, who talked with me as we rode, bade me be
a Christian man, that hereafter we might meet again. And you ken
that I saw him, and how he spoke to me, that night when he was
slain, so that from me you learned his death. Now I would do his
bidding, and so be christened straightway, if so it may be."

I did not know what to answer, for it was sudden.

Not that I was much surprised, for Erling had ever been most
careful of all that might offend in his way when he came into a
church with me, but that here in the dim church the question came
so strangely and, as it were, fittingly. I held out my hand to him,
and looked round to the priests, who had heard all. One of them was
that elder man who went to seek the king's body with us, and he
rose up and came to us, and bade us into the little bare sacristy
apart.

"My son," he said to Erling, "it is a good and fitting wish; yet I
would not have you do aught hastily. How long has this matter been
in your mind?"

"I think that it indeed began long years ago, when my lord here
kept his faith with Thorleif when he might have escaped. That made
me think well of Christian men. He had not so much as taken oath."

"Carl the Great would christen a heathen man first and teach him
afterward," said I, meaning indeed to help on Erling's hope with