Ulred at once put on his cap and proceeded to the palace, where he found Beorn without difficulty.
"You have not come to tell me that the blade I left with you yesterday cannot be fitted with a new hilt, Master Ulred? It is a favourite weapon of mine, and I would rather pay twice the price of a new one than lose it."
"I have come on another matter, my Lord Beorn. It is for your private ear. May I pray you to come with me to my house, where I can enter upon it without fear of being overheard?"
"Certainly I will come, Ulred, though I cannot think what this matter may be."
"It concerns in some way the Thane of Steyning, my lord, and others even higher in position."
"That is enough," Beorn said. "Anything that concerns Wulf concerns me, and as he is in the matter you can count on me without question."
Upon reaching his house Ulred left Beorn for a moment in the room upstairs, and fetched Ulf down from the attic.
"This is an apprentice lad of mine," he said, "and as it is he who has been employed by the Thane of Steyning in this affair, it were best that he himself informed you of it."
When Ulf had finished his story Beorn exclaimed, "I will go at once, and will put such an affront upon this Walter Fitz-Urse that he must needs meet me in mortal combat."
"But even if you slay him, my lord, that may not interfere with the carrying out of this enterprise, in which, as we know, another of equal rank with him is engaged."