on Havelok's
head, and hailed him as king indeed; and one by one the chiefs came and
swore all fealty to him, beginning with Sigurd, and ending with a boy of
some seventeen winters, who looked at the king he bent before as though
he was Thor himself.

Then they would have had Havelok forth to the people at once; but he
bade them hearken for a moment, and said, taking Goldberga by the hand,
"Were it not for this my wife, I do not think that I had been here
today, and without her I am nothing. Now I am king by your word, and I
think that I might bid you take her as queen. But I had rather that she
was made queen by your word also, that whither I live or fall in the
strife that is to come, you may fight for her."

At that there was a murmur of praise, and all agreed that she should be
crowned at once. So Havelok set the crown on her head while the chiefs
in one voice swore to uphold her through good and ill, as though she
were Havelok himself.

Then said Havelok, "Now have you taken her for queen for her own sake,
and I will tell you a thing that has not been heard here as yet. On this
throne sits the queen of two lands, and there shall come a day when you
and I shall set your lady on that other throne which is hers by right.
King's daughter she is, for Ethelwald of the East Angles was her father,
and out of her right has she been kept by Alsi of Lindsey, her evil
kinsman."

At that men were glad, for great is the magic of kingly descent. And
thereupon that old warrior who had bidden Havelok sound the horn said,
"We have heard of Ethelwald the good king, and of this Alsi moreover,
and we know men who have seen both, and also Orwenna, the mother of our
own queen here. I followed your father across the seas in the old days,
and I seem to hear his voice again as you speak to us. And I saw him--
ay, I saw him yonder even now, and I am content. When the time comes
that for the sake of Goldberga you will gather a host and cross the
'swan's path,' I will not hold back, if you will have me."

There was spoken the mind of all that company, and they were not
backward to say so. For in the heart of the Dane is ever the love of the
sea, and of the clash of arms on a far-off strand that comes after
battle with wind and wave.

Very bravely did Goldberga thank the chiefs for their love to her
husband and herself in a few words that were all that were needed to
bind the hearers to her, so well and truly were they chosen. And she
s