"Why, come with us, surely!" I answered, having no thought but that he would have done so as our guest.
"Thanks," he said; "I knew not if your help could go so far as that to a man whose story might well be too strange for belief."
Now it had seemed to me that no one could doubt such a man, and so I told him that we had no doubt of him at all in that matter. And he thanked me gravely again, walking, as I thought, more freely beside me, as knowing that he was held to be a true man.
We followed my father, who walked with the king, at a little distance because of this small delay; and presently Lodbrok asked me if this was the King of all England.
"No," I answered; "though, indeed, he is the only king we know aught of. This is Eadmund of East Anglia."
"You know him well, as one may see by his way with you," said the jarl.
"Surely, for he is my father's close friend. They were comrades together in King Offa's court until the old king laid down his crown and gave the kingdom into Eadmund's hands; and they are the same to each other now as ever. He is my godfather; and I was in his court till I was eighteen. Moreover, I am one of his armour bearers yet when need is."
So I spoke plainly enough, for I think that I had, and ever shall have, reason to be proud of our nearness to the king, of whom no man had but good to say since he, almost as a boy, came to the throne.
"So then it seems that fate has brought me to court," said the Dane.
"Yes, in a way," I told him; "for the king will ever bide with us when he would visit this side of his kingdom."