e and went many with things for the feast from the kitchens.
Then some one turned to see who towered over them thus, and when he saw
Havelok he went on looking, so that others looked also. Then one of the
three singers looked, and his voice stayed, for he was a stranger, and
had heard nothing of this newcomer, and then Havelok followed Berthun up
the hall in a kind of hush that fell, and he was smiling a little, as if
it amused him. He had on the things that the steward had given him, and
they were good enough--as good as, if more sober than, my housecarl
finery. But I suppose that not one in all the gathering looked at what
he wore; for as he passed up the long tables, it seemed that there was
no man worth looking at but he, and even Ragnar seemed to be but a
common man when one turned to him with eyes that had seen Havelok.

Now Alsi the king sat staring at him, still as a carven image, with his
hand halfway to his mouth, as he raised his horn from the table; and
Ragnar looked wide-eyed, for he knew him again, and I saw a little smile
curl the corners of his lips and pass; and then Havelok was at the step
of the high place, and there he gave the salute of the courtmen of a
Danish king, heeding Berthun, who tried to make him do reverence, not at
all.

Now a spark from my torch drew my eyes from him, lest it should fall on
the princess's robe; and when it went out, I saw that the fair hand that
rested on the arm of the great chair was shaking like a leaf. When I
looked, her face was white and troubled, and she half rose from her seat
and then sank back in it gently, and the thane who sat next her spoke
anxiously to her in a low voice, and the lady by his side rose up and
came to her.

Then Alsi turned, and he too spoke, asking if aught was amiss.

"The princess faints with the heat of the hall," said the thane's wife.
"She yet feels the long journey. May she not go hence?"

Then Goldberga said bravely, "It is naught, and it will pass."

But they made her rise and leave the hall; and the guests stood up as
she went with her ladies round her, and many were the murmurs of pity
that I heard.

"As though she had seen a ghost, so white is she," one whispered.

But none knew how much the lady was to be pitied. She had seen the man
of her vision; and, lo! for all that she knew, he was a thrall who
toiled in the palace kitchens.

And after her, as she withdrew, looked Havelok with eyes in which there
was more than pity