Havelok the Dane: A Legend of Old Grimsby and Lincoln

by Charles W. Whistler

Whereat the king beckoned Berthun.

“Bring your new wonder here,” he said. “Say that I have heard of his deed, and would look on him.”

Berthun bowed and went his way; and I wondered how my brother would bear this, for the hall and its ordering was wont, as I have said, to bring back his troubled thoughts of things half remembered.

Presently he came in at the door at the lower end of the hall, and at first none noticed him, for there was singing going on, and through that door came and went many with things for the feast from the kitchens. Then some one turned to see who towered over them thus, and when he saw Havelok he went on looking, so that others looked also. Then one of the three singers looked, and his voice stayed, for he was a stranger, and had heard nothing of this newcomer, and then Havelok followed Berthun up the hall in a kind of hush that fell, and he was smiling a little, as if it amused him. He had on the things that the steward had given him, and they were good enough—as good as, if more sober than, my housecarl finery. But I suppose that not one in all the gathering looked at what he wore; for as he passed up the long tables, it seemed that there was no man worth looking at but he, and even Ragnar seemed to be but a common man when one turned to him with eyes that had seen Havelok.

Now Alsi the king sat staring at him, still as a carven image, with his hand halfway to his mouth, as he raised his horn from the table; and Ragnar looked wide-eyed, for he knew him again, and I saw a little smile curl the corners of his lips and pass; and then Havelok was at the step of the high place, and there he gave the salute of the courtmen of a Danish king, heeding Berthun, who tried to make him do reverence, not at all.

Now a spark from my torch drew my eyes from him, lest it should fall on the princess’s robe; and when it went out, I saw that the fair hand that rested on the arm of the great chair was shaking like a leaf. When I looked, her face was white and troubled, and she half rose from her seat and then sank back in it gently, and the thane who sat next her spoke anxiously to her in a low voice, and the lady by his side rose up and came to her.

Then Alsi turned, and he too spoke, asking if aught was amiss.

“The princess faints with the heat of the hall,” said the thane’s wife. “She yet feels the long journey. May she not go hence?”

Then Goldberga said bravely, “It is naught, and it will pass.”

But they made her rise and leave the hall; and the guests stood up as she went with her ladies round her, and many were the murmurs of pity that I heard.