"Alfgar, son of Anlaf, answer; whom didst thou espy talking with Sweyn?"
"Edric Streorn."
"How didst know him?"
"Because he threatened my life on St. Brice's night, and I had often seen him while dwelling in Mercia."
"A Dane witnessing against a free-born Englishman? Can it be endured?" cried Ethelred. "What, here, my royal guard!--here! here! your King is insulted--insulted, and by his son and his son's minions."
The guard rushed in, their weapons in their hands.
"Seize my son, the false Edmund."
"Here I am," quietly said the hero of the English army, for such he was, although not recognised as such by the government of his father. "Here I am; what Englishman will bind me?"
The men stood as if paralysed.
"Will you not obey?" shouted the weak Ethelred, and stamped in impotent anger on the floor.