Then said Havelok, “That is well spoken, and I cannot but agree. Who are you, however, for I must know that this is said with authority?”
“I am the Earl of Chester,” he answered. “Alsi has set the leading of the host in my hands, for he is hurt somewhat.”
“I did not think that Mercians would have troubled to fight to uphold Alsi of Lindsey in his ways with his niece,” Havelok said.
“What is that?” said the earl. “Hither came I for love of fighting, maybe, in the first place; and next to drive out certain Vikings. I know naught of the business of which you speak.”
“Then,” said I, “go and ask Eglaf, the captain of the housecarls, for he knows all about it. We are no raiding Danes, but those who fight for Goldberga of East Anglia.”
At that a hum of voices went down the English line, and this earl bit his lip in doubt.
“Well,” he said, “that is Alsi’s affair, and I will speak to him. We have had a good fight, and I will not say that either of us has the best of it. Shall it be as I have said?”
“Ay,” answered Havelok; and the earl drew off his men for half a mile, and in the gathering dusk we crossed the brook, and went on our errand across the field. It was not hard to find our men, for they lay in a great wedge as we had fought. There had been no straggling from that array, and no break had been made in its lines. Alsi had lost more than we, for his men had beaten against that steel wall in vain, and the arms of the Northman are better than those of any other nation.
We took the wounded back to the camp, and there Goldberga and the wives of our English thanes tended them; and as we gathered up the slain the Lindsey men were among us at the same work, and we spoke to them as if naught was amiss between us, nor any fight to begin again in the morning. And then we learned how few knew what we had come for. It was with them as with the Earl of Chester. They had no knowledge of Goldberga’s homecoming, and least of all thought that at the back of the trouble were the wiles of Alsi. It was two years ago that Goldberga had gone, and her wedding had seemed to end her story. Now the men heard and wondered; and it is said that very many left Alsi that night and went home, angry with him for his falsehood.
Now when all was done we sought rest, and weary we were. I will say for myself that I did not feel like fighting next morning at all, for I was tired out, and the one or two wounds that I had were getting sorely stiff. Raven was much in the same case, and grumbled, sailor-wise, at the weight of the banner and aught else that came uppermost in his mind. Yet I knew that he would be the first to go forward again when the time came.