ad heard naught but good of her, at all events, and I will say now
that all I had heard was true. There could be no sweeter maiden in
all the land than she. I heard the same good words of her only
brother, Ecgfrith, and I suppose that those two bore more likeness
to their mighty father than to the queen.

All this half-stifled talk of untold ill from Quendritha lay heavy
on my mind; and it came to me that Sighard was a true man, and that
to him I might tell the tale Thrond told me. I must share that
secret with some one who might, if he deemed it wise, warn King
Ethelbert in such sort that he should beware of her, now and
hereafter. So after a little while I said:

"Thane, I have heard that Quendritha came ashore--"

"Ay," he said sharply, looking round him. "But that is a tale which
is best let alone. It is true enough. My wife's folk took her in at
Lincoln."

"Is it known whence she came?" I went on, paying no heed to a
warning sign he made; for we were far from the camp yet, and the
king was a hundred yards ahead of us.

"Let be, Wilfrid; hold your peace on that. There are men who have
asked that question in all simplicity, and they have gone."

"Why, is there aught amiss in coming ashore as she did?"

"Hold your peace, I tell you. On my word, it is as well, though,
that you have had it out with me here in the meadows. Listen: there
is no harm in the drifting hither. What sent her adrift?"

"I have sailed for a month with Danes," I said. "I have met with a
man who once set a girl adrift."

As I said that I looked him meaningly in the face, and he grew
pale.

"So," he said slowly, "you have heard that tale also. There was a
Danish chapman who came to our haven at Mundesley, where I live,
and told it there to me. That was a year after the boat was found.
I bade him be silent, but there was no need. When he heard that the
girl had become what she is, he fled the land. And, mind you, he
could not be certain, nor can I."

"Nor could the man who told me. But my Dane is the nephew of that
man."

Sighard grasped my arm.

"Speak to him, and bid him hold his tongue if he has heard the
tale, else he and you are dead men. Get to him at once."

I thought, indeed, that there was need to do so, though Erling was
in nowise talkative. For if, as was pretty certain, the tale of the
coming of Quendritha went round the groups of men at the camp
fires, he might say that he had heard of one set adrift from his
own land