t this unmannerly coming at first, but his brow
cleared as he heard the cry of the man. He signed to Elfrida to
wait for a moment, and looked kindly at the thrall before him.

"Justice, Lord," the man said again.

"Justice you shall have, my poor churl," answered the king gently.
"But this is not quite the time to go into the matter. Sit you down
again, and presently you shall tell all to Owen the marshal, and
thus it will come to me, and you shall see me again in the
morning."

"Nay, but I will have justice here and now," the man said doggedly,
and yet with some sort of appeal in his voice.

"Is it so pressing? Well, then, speak on. Maybe the vow that I
shall make will be to see you righted."

And so the king sat down again, and the lady Elfrida waited,
resting one hand on the table at the end of the dais farthest from
me, and holding the golden cup yet in the other.

"What shall be done to the man who slays my brother?" the thrall
cried.

And the king answered:

"If he has slain him by craft, he shall die; but if in fair fight
and for what men deem reason, then he shall pay the full weregild
that is due according to my dooms."

Then said the man, and his voice minded me of Owen's in some way:

"But and if he slew him openly in cold blood, for no wrong done to
himself?"

"A strange doing," said the king--"but he should die therefor."

The king leant forward, with his elbow on the table to hear the
better, and the man was close to the lowest step to be near him. It
seemed that he was very wroth, for his right hand clutched the
front of his rough jerkin fiercely, and his voice was harsh and
shaking.

"It is your own word, Ina of Wessex, that the man who has slain my
brother in this wise shall die. Lo, you! I am Morgan of
Dyvnaint--and thus--"

There flashed from under the jerkin a long knife in the man's hand,
and at the king he leapt up the low steps. But two of us had seen
what was coming, and even as the brave maiden on his left dashed
the full cup of wine in the man's face, blinding him, I was on him,
so that the wine covered him and my tunic at once. I had him by the
neck, and he gripped the table, and his knife flashed back at me
wildly once, but I jerked him round and hurled him from the dais
with a mighty crash, and so followed him and held him pinioned,
while the cups and platters of the overturned table rolled and
clattered round us.

Then rose uproar enough, and the hall was full of flash