im ere she went to her chamber, and I who sat by the side of my lord,
looked up at her, smiling; for she had never kissed him before among
men. And looking, I saw, ere their lips met, a change come into the
eyes of Helga and she stood still. Then, making a little gesture as of
casting something away from her, she stooped again, but the change grew
in her eyes and she could not. I followed her look to where it rested on
the curtained door that enters the hall from the apartments which face
on the water.

Slowly I reached for my axe, and leaning to look at my lord as I lifted
up his, I saw him waiting expectantly, shyly before his men, for Helga's
good-night. So I leaned a moment. Then I whispered to him, and put the
axe in his hand.

The great table is overturned, the broken stools and benches lie over
the floor, the fire is scattered, and the flying ashes drift in the
smoke and swirl around the heads of the combatants, making them cough as
they strike. The drunken men along the walls are stabbed or trampled
among the torn rushes, and the foe that have stolen in through the
seaward windows are pressing over the benches.

We are behind the upturned table, and fighting desperately, our backs
to the wall. The enemy rush against the table but the long arms of our
men drive them back. I am holding a boat-shield from the wall over Helga
and using my axe with the other hand.

Lord Snore is sweeping the space in front of him clear; he has thrown
aside his shield. We seem to have been fighting for hours in the dim
hall.

Our men begin to fall behind the table; they are in their leather coats,
and guard badly in the murk.

The swords clang on the edge of the table; the men stumble over broken
dishes. I see through the smoke one of them with his foot fast in a
wooden beer mug. They run along the table striking. The smoke comes in
my eyes, and the forms grow dim.

Now they go back leaving us, and a tall man dressed in strange armour,
breaks through them, and stands, banging his leg with his sword.

"I am Swend, kinsman of Rudolf of Lolland; and I came and found his hall
ashes. Say, dost thou think that a ship with the dragon beheaded, can
sail where it will and no man be the wiser? And who was it, think you,
that drove your ship--laughing?" And he stood, snarling and digging the
floor with his sword-point, like a wolf in his anger.

Then Lord Snore, resting his axe on the table--"If thou art the man who
fought with my f