hief. Is it to your mind to begin with the battle? Or do
you rather wish to hear of my journey thence? I admit that that part is
somewhat likely to stick in my teeth and in your ears. From Otford to
Shepey was little better than a retreat, and if--"

"The battle! the battle!" a chorus of voices cried, and the chief
confirmed the choice.

"The battle, by all means! The other will do for lesser dishes when the
first edge is off our appetite. Where was it? And how long since? Yet,
before any of these, how goes it with my royal foster-brother? And how
do his traitors carry sail, Odin's curse upon them! Speak! How fares
he?"

"On the top of the wave, my chief,--though it is my belief that he has
your mind toward Edric Jarl, for all that Thorkel is ever on hand to
urge the value of his craft. And certainly it was exceedingly useful to
them at Assington--"

"Assington!"... "In Essex?" the chorus broke in upon him. "It happened
as Grimalf said--"... "--the horse with the bloody saddle which he found
over the hill--"... "Do you know for certain if Edric--"... "Why will
you interrupt him?"... "Yes, end this talk!"... "Go on, go on!"

"I also say go on, in the Troll's name!" the Jotun roared. "Go on and
tell us what Edric the Gainer did which they else could not have done."

"I said not that he did what they could not, chief. He did what they
would not, as the thrall who pulls off our boots muddies his hands that
we may keep ours clean. And a strange wonder is the way in which the
English king trusts him even after this treason has been committed!
The Gainer fled, with all his men, at the moment when most King Edmund
depended upon his support; and in this way left for Danish feet a hewn
path where a forest of battle-trees had stood."

Rothgar took no part in the stream of questions and comments that again
drowned the voice of the messenger, until suddenly he launched an oath
that out-thundered them all: "May Thor feel otherwise than I do, for
I vow that were I in his place, I would raise Danish warriors in
wool-chests! Is that the valor of the descendants of Odin, that they go
not into battle until a foul-hearted traitor has swept the way clean of
danger? Is the heart of the King become wax within him? Or is it that
cold-blooded fox at his side that is draining the manhood out of him?
I would give much if I had been there!" Casting himself down upon the
bearskin, he lay there breathing hard and tearing the fur out in great