I did wait to break my fast, and that was all, for I had no mind to spend the night on the road back from the talk that I should have had; but though I wasted so little time, the people were already beginning to prepare for rejoicing in their own way with games of all sorts and with feasting in the open. I saw, as we rode down the street, the piles of firewood that were to roast oxen whole, and near them were the butts that held ale for all comers. There were men who set up the marks for the archers, and others who staked out the rings for the wrestling and sword play. And as we left the town we met two men who led a great brown bear by a ring in his nose, for the baiting. I was sorry for the poor beast, but the men called him “Hodulf,” already, and I thought that a good sign in its way.
Another good sign, and that one which could not be mistaken, was to see the warriors coming in by twos and threes as the news reached them. They were dotted along the roads from all quarters, and across the heaths we saw the flash of the arms of more.
And ever as they met us they hailed us with, “What cheer, comrades? Is the news true? Is Havelok come to his own?” and the like, and they would hurry on, rejoicing in the answer that they had.
But I will say that presently, when we passed a stretch of wild moor where we saw no man, the same was going on towards the town of Hodulf; for if the news came to a village, some would be for the king that was, and other and older men for the king that might be. Yet all asked that question; and more than once, when they heard the reply, there would be a halt and a talk, and then the men would turn and cast in their lot with the son of Gunnar, hastening to him with more eager steps than had taken them to Hodulf.
[CHAPTER XXI.
THE TOKEN OF SACK AND ANCHOR.]
It seemed only the other day that I had passed over the well-known ways, and I showed Withelm the hollow where Grim had met with the king and taken his precious burden from him. Then we passed along the wild shore, and the linnets were singing and the whinchats were calling as ever, and the old mounds of the heroes of the bygone were awesome to me now as long ago, when I looked at them standing lonesome along the shore with only the wash of the waves to disturb them. And so we came to the town at high noon, and already there was the bustle of a gathering host in the place, for the news had fled before us.
They had built a new and greater hall in place of that which had been burned; and there sat Hodulf with his chiefs, wondering and planning, and maybe waiting for more certain news of what had happened. Not long would they wait for that now.
We rode to the door, and one came to meet us with words of welcome, thinking that we were men who came to the levy that was gathering; but his words stayed when I asked to be taken to the presence of Hodulf, as I came with a message from Havelok Gunnarsson the king.
The man, chamberlain or steward, or whatever he was, stared at me, and said in a low voice, “It is true then?”
“True as I am Radbard Grimsson, who helped Havelok to fly from hence.”