Hereward bowed.
“And for me,” said Robert, “Naemansson or earl’s son, here is my Viking’s welcome to all Vikings like myself.” And he held out his hand.
Hereward took it.
“You failed in Galicia, beausire, only because your foes were a hundred to one. You will not fail where you are going, if (as I hear) they are but ten to one.”
Robert laughed, vain and gratified.
“Then you know where I have been, and where I am going?”
“Why not? As you know well, we Vikings are all brothers, and all know each other’s counsel, from ship to ship and port to port.”
Then the two young men looked each other in the face, and each saw that the other was a man who would suit him.
“Skall to the Viking!” cried Robert, aping, as was his fancy, the Norse rovers’ slang. “Will you come with me to Holland?”
“You must ask my young lord there,” and he pointed to Arnulf. “I am his man now, by all laws of honor.”