she that he also prayed in that wise to her God, that naught
might be apart in their minds.
Then he said, "I have heard this from David and Withelm also, and it is
good. Teach me to vow to your God, sweet wife, and I will do so; and you
shall teach me to pray as you pray."
So it came to pass that Havelok in the after days was more than ready to
help the Christian teachers when they came to him; for that was how the
vow that he made ran, that he would do so if he was king, and had the power.
Now there is nothing to tell of our voyage, for one could not wish for a
better passage, if the ship was slow. Indeed, she was so slow that a
smaller vessel that left Tetney haven on the next day reached the same
port that we were bound for on the night that we came to our old home.
And that we learned soon after she had come.
Into Sigurd's haven we sailed on the morning tide, and strange it seemed
to me to see the well-known place unchanged as we neared it. My father's
house was there, and Arngeir's, and the great hall of the jarl towered
over all, as I remembered it. Men were building a ship in the long shed
where ours had been built, and where the queen had hidden; and the
fishing boats lay on the hard as on the day when Havelok had come to us.
The little grove was yet behind our house, and it seemed strange when I
remembered that the old stones of its altar were far beyond the seas. I
wondered if Thor yet stood under his great ash tree; and then I saw one
change, for that tree was gone, and in its place stood a watchtower,
stone built, and broad and high, for haven beacon.
On the high fore deck stood Havelok, and his arm was round Goldberga as
we ran in, but they were silent. The land held overmuch of coming wonder
for them to put into words, as I think.
Presently the boats came off to us in the old way, and here and there I
seemed to know the faces of the men, but I was not sure. It was but the
remembrance of the old Danish cast of face, maybe. I could put no names
to any of them. And as we were warped alongside the wharf, there rode
down to see who we were Sigurd the jarl himself, seeming unchanged,
although twelve years had gone over him. He was younger than my father,
I think, and was at that age when a man changes too slowly for a boy to
notice aught but that the one he left as a man he thought old is so yet.
He was just the noble-looking warrior that I had always wondered at and
admired.
We had arranged in th
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