For the fair princess had won her own, and there was naught but gladness.
[CHAPTER XXIV.
PEACE, AND FAREWELL.]
Now there was feasting enough, and somewhere they found at a thane’s house a great tent, and they set that up, so that Havelok and Goldberga might have their own court round them, as it were. Gladly did Berthun rid himself of war gear and take to his old trade again. I suppose that the little Tetford valley had never heard the like sounds of rejoicing before.
Near midnight a man came to me and said that a message had come to me from the other side, and I rose from the board and went out, to find Eglaf waiting for me in the moonlight. He was armed, and his face was wan and tired.
“Come apart, friend,” he said; “I have a message from the king.”
“To me?”
“No, to Havelok. But you must hear it first, and then tell him as you will.”
We walked away from the tent and across the hillside for some way, and then he said without more words, “This is the message that Alsi sends to Havelok, whose name was Curan. ‘Forgive the things that are past, for many there are that need forgiving. I have no heir, and it is for myself that I have schemed amiss. In Lincoln town lies a great treasure, of which Eglaf and I alone know. Give it, I pray you, to your Danes, that they may harm the land not at all, and so shall I ward off some of the evil that might come through me even yet. I think that, after me, you shall be king.’”
“That is wise of Alsi; but is there no word for Goldberga?”
“Ay, but not by my mouth. I fetched David the priest two hours ago, and he bears those messages.”