“Now, earl, I think that you may say what you have to say that will set things right once more.”
“Can none of us put the arm back first?” I said. “I will try, if none else has done such a thing before, for it will not be the first time.”
“Put it back, if you can,” said Cadwal. “If there is anything to be said, it had better be in some sort of comfort.”
So I put the arm back, for when once the trick is learned there is not, as a rule, much trouble. But Griffin never thanked me. He left that to his seconds, who did so well enough.
Then Ragnar came forward and said gravely, “I was wrong when I called you ‘nidring,’ and I take back the word and ask you to forget it. No man who is that will face the Danish axe as you have faced it, and I will say that the British sword is a thing to be feared.”
But Griffin made no answer, and when Ragnar held out his hand he would not see it.
“Maybe I have not yet made amends,” Ragnar went on. “I will add, therefore, as I know that my words will go no farther, that I am sure that the thing concerning which we quarrelled yesterday was done by you at the orders of another. It was not your own doing, and no thought of cowardice is in my mind now.”
But Griffin never answered; and now he turned his back on the earl, who was plainly grieved, and said no more to him, but turned to us and the two Welshmen.
“I do not think that I can say more. If there is aught that is needed, tell me. We have fought a fair fight, and I have taken back the words that caused it.”
Then said Cadwal, “No more is needed. I did not think that we had met with so generous a foe. If Griffin will say naught, we say this for him. He has no cause for enmity left. And I say also that he has to thank this thane for his life as well as the earl.”