lok.

"Are you going to let these two bide there?" he said. "Pick the poor
knaves from under the stone and timber, and see to them."

But they hung back yet, and he called them "nidring."

Thereat two or three made a step forward, and one said, "Lord, let us do
as you bid us, and harm us not."

"You are safe," he answered, and Biorn laughed and said that this was
the most wholesome word that he had heard tonight.

"Lord, forsooth! Mighty little of that was there five minutes ago."

But it was not the terrible stone throwing only that wrung this from
them, as I think. They had seen Havelok in his arms, with the light of
battle on his face in the broad moonlight, and knew him for a king among
men.

They took the hurt men from under the tower, and then crowded together,
watching us. And some man must needs loose an arrow at us, and it rang
on my mail, and that let loose the crowd again. Soon we had to shelter
under the battlement, but they were not able to lodge any arrows among
us, for that is a bit of skill that needs daylight. Then they dared to
get to the timber once more, and we saw them coming.

Havelok took his helm, and set it on his sword point, and raised it
slowly above the wall, and that drew all the arrows in a moment. Then he
leapt up, and tore the stone from the other corner; and again, but this
time without warning, it fell on the men below, and that wrought more
harm than before. But it stayed them for a time, though not so long, for
now their blood was up, and the berserk spirit was waking in them.
Already the third stone was poised in the mighty hands, and would have
fallen, when there was a cry of, "The jarl! the jarl!" and along the
path into the clearing galloped Sigurd himself, with his courtmen
running behind him, and he called on the men to stay.

They dropped the beam at the command, and were silent. And Sigurd looked
up at the tower, and saw who was there, and stayed with his face raised,
motionless for a space. I minded how Mord had stared and cried out when
first he saw Havelok, the son of Gunnar, in his war gear.

"Biorn! where is Biorn?" cried Sigurd, looking back on the crowd as if
he thought he would be there.

"Here am I, jarl," came the answer, and the sheriff looked out from
beside Havelok.

"What is all this?"

"On my word, jarl, I cannot tell. Here have I been beset in my own
house, and but for your guests some of us would have come off badly.
There were outlanders who