go hence, for you have the answer."

"This means fighting for Goldberga's rights," said Arngeir, "and I will
tell you that Havelok will not be backward in the matter."

"In that case we shall meet again on the battlefield ere long," answered
the thane. "I will not say that Havelok is in the wrong, and things
might have been better settled. Farewell till then. The Norns will show
who is right."

So we went, and I thought, as did Arngeir, that there was some little
feeling among his men that Alsi was wrong.

Now Alsi set to work to gather forces in earnest, and he went to work in
a way that was all his own: for, saying nothing about Goldberga, he sent
to all his thanes with word that the Vikings had come in force and
invaded the land, led by the son of Gunnar Kirkeban, whose ways were
worse than those of his father, for he spared none, whereas Kirkeban
harried but the Welsh Christian folk. He prayed them therefore to
hasten, that this scourge might be driven back to the sea whence he
came. And that brought men to him fast, for no Englishman can bear that
an invader shall set foot on his shore, be he who he may. Few knew who
the wife of Havelok was at that time, but I do not know that it would
have made so much difference if they had. None thought that into England
had come the fair princess who was so well loved.

Sorely troubled was Goldberga when she heard this answer, but it was all
that the rest of us looked for. And the next question was how best to
meet the false king.

In the end we did a thing that may seem to some to have been rash
altogether, but it was our wish to compel Alsi to fight before his force
was great enough to crush us. It might be long before Ragnar could raise
a host and join us, for there was always a chance that he might have
trouble in getting the Norfolk thanes to come to his standard for a
march on Lindsey. If we had gone to Norfolk at once there would have
been no fear of that kind, but the fighting might have been more bitter
and longer drawn out.

We sent the fleet southward into the Wash, that it might wait for us at
the port of the Fossdyke, on what men call the Frieston shore; and then
we left Saltfleet and marched across country to the wolds, and southward
and westward along them, that we might draw Alsi from Lincoln. And all
the way men joined us for the sake of Curan, whom they knew, and of
Goldberga, of whom they had heard, so that in numbers at least our host
was a great on