Here is a happening!" he ejaculated. "If I am not much
mistaken, Canute will be glad to find this out. It was his belief that
you had got your death-blow at Scoerstan, and he took it ill."

The King's ward made no other answer than to regard him with a strange
mixture of attention and aversion; but the Etheling reached out and
pushed the boy farther behind the great chair.

"Fridtjof Frodesson is my captive and no longer concerns you," he said
briefly. "Give him no further thought, but come to your message."

The swaggering assurance of the man's laugh was more offensive than
rudeness would have been. "If I say that we will shortly set him free, I
shall not be going very wide from my message. My errand hither is that I
bring word from Rothgar Lodbroksson to surrender the Tower."

The page uttered a little cry, and his lord raised a hand mechanically
to impose silence; but no one else seemed able to speak or to move.
From the master in his chair to the serf by the door, they stared
dumb-founded at the messenger.

He, on his part, appeared to realize all at once that the time for
formality had come. Pitching his cloak higher on his shoulders, he
fastened his eyes on a hole in the tapestry behind the Etheling's
chair and began monotonously to recite his lesson: "Rothgar, the son of
Lodbrok, sends you greeting, Sebert Oswaldsson; and it is his will
that you surrender to him the odal and Tower of Ivarsdale; as is right,
because the odal was created and the Tower was built by Ivar Vidfadmi,
who was the first son of Lodbrok and the father's father's father of my
chief---" In spite of himself, he was obliged to stop to take in breath.

In the pause, the page bent toward his master, his face alight with a
sudden fierce triumph. "Lord," he whispered, "you can never get out! You
are caught as though they had you in a trap!"

Astounded, Sebert drew back to stare at him. "Fridtjof! It is not
possible that you are unfaithful to me!"

The boy's only answer was to drop down upon the step and bury his face
in his hands. And nov: the messenger had recovered his wind and his
place.

"Since the time of Alfred," he went on, "my chief and his kin have been
kept out of the property by your stock and you; yet because he does not
wish to look mean, he offers you to go out in safety with all of your
housefolk, both men and women, and as much property as you can walk
under,--if you go quietly and in peace." This time his inflection show