Did I not live even as a lordless man the while that
Ethelred remained upon the throne? But what sense to continue at that
after Ethelred was dead, and the valor of his son was to that degree
exalted as if he had sprung from Alfred? Yourself counselled me to join
him at Gillingham, and take the post under his banner that my fathers
have always held beside his fathers."

Two of the three warriors made no other answer than to gurgle their drink
noisily in their throats; but the one whom he had called Morcard
answered dryly, "It is not against testing the new king that we would
advise you, Lord Sebert; it is against trusting him. But we will not be
troublesome." He lifted his hand suddenly to his ear. "Horses' feet! And
stopping by the King's fire--"

What else he said, Randalin did not hear. Her wits had crawled heavily
after the sound of the hoofs. Now the beat changed to a champing and
stamping among dry leaves not many rods to her right. She wondered
indifferently if there was any likelihood of their running over her;
then forgot the query before she had answered it.

The Etheling was speaking again, with all the earnestness of
hero-worship. "--the battles he has fought, the abundance of warriors
he has gathered together, the land he has won back since his father's
death! Only take to-day--"

"Ay, take to-day!" the old man snapped him up with unexpected vehemence.
"And the Devil take me if I ever heard of such witless folly! What! To
go plunging off into the thick of the enemy, endangering in his person
the hope of the whole English nation--"

The young noble relaxed from his earnestness to laugh. "Now has habit
outrid your manners, Morcard. So long have you been wont to use your
tongue on my heedlessness, that it begins mechanically to perform the
same office for Edmund. In a king, such courage inspires--"

"Courage!" Morcard's fingers snapped loudly. "Did not the henchman who
followed you have courage? Yet do we think of crowning him? I tell you
that a king needs to have something besides courage. He needs to have
judgment. Then will he know better than to leave his men like sheep
without a leader. The old proverb has it right, 'When the chief fails,
the host quails.' It was when they had become frightened about him that
they began to give way, and after that it was easy for any oaf to jump
out of the bushes and put them to flight."

This time the Etheling's smile was rather unwilling. "Oh! If you think
fit