Then the King began to talk of government in words so wise, so thoughtful, that he forgot his own thoughts and listened heartily, planning to make good use of what he learned, in after days. The other men in the hall had gathered to meet the stranger, and they, too, said their word now and then, for those were the days when every man who had a good word to say in council was in no way backward about saying it. But some were not so courteous to the stranger as they might have been, and said one, when Ulf modestly raised a doubt in a case which he did not fully understand,
"Know thou, stranger, King Knut is more than king of men. The sea itself obeys him."
Had Ulf been older he would have passed it by unnoticed. As it was he merely asked Knut, with lifted eyebrow,
"Are these captains thine advisers?"
The King flushed hotly and turned to his flatterers.
"Sayest thou I am the lord of the sea—that it will obey my word?"
A dozen voices shouted "Yea!" in as many different ways. The King looked at them steadily for a moment, then with a half-smile waved his hand to his throne from which he had arisen, and said,
"Carry me that to the shore, and do thou attend."
It was low tide, but the young flood had begun to come in, and when the throne was placed well out toward the water, Knut seated himself and said,
"Wait! now shall we see the value of advisers."