After which, as was the custom of those parts, most of them drank too much liquor. But neither Sigtryg nor Hereward drank; and the two Siwards stood behind their young uncle’s seat, watching him with that intense admiration which lads can feel for a young man.
That night, when the warriors were asleep, Sigtryg and Hereward talked out their plans. They would equip two ships; they would fight all the kinglets of Cornwall at once, if need was; they would carry off the Princess, and burn Alef’s town over his head, if he said nay. Nothing could be more simple than the tactics required in an age when might was right.
Then Hereward turned to his two nephews who lingered near him, plainly big with news.
“And what brings you here, lads?” He had hardened his heart, and made up his mind to show no kindness to his own kin. The day might come when they might need him; then it would be his turn.
“Your father, as we told you, is dead.”
“So much the better for him, and the worse for England. And Harold and the Godwinssons, of course, are lords and masters far and wide?”
“Tosti has our grandfather Siward’s earldom.”
“I know that. I know, too, that he will not keep it long, unless he learns that Northumbrians are free men, and not Wessex slaves.”
“And Algar our uncle is outlawed again, after King Edward had given him peaceably your father’s earldom.”
“And why?”