, and what I have
spoken shall stand."

Struggling with those who would have forced him from the room, Rothgar
had no breath to retort with, but the words did not go unsaid because
of that. Wherever scarlet cloaks made a bright patch, the human arras
swayed and shook violently, and then fell apart into groups of angry men
whose voices rose in resentful chorus:

"Such judgment by a Danish King is unexampled!" "King, are we all to
expect this treatment?... This is the third time you have ruled against
your own men--" "Sven you punished for the murder of an Englishman--"
"Because you forced Gorm to pay his debt to an Englishman, he has lost
all the property he owns." "Now, as before, we want to know what this
means." "You are our chief, whose kingship we have held up with our
lives--" "What are these English to you?"... "They are the thralls
your sword has laid-under, while we are of your own blood--" "It is
the strong will of us warriors to know what you mean--" "Yes, tell
it plainly!"... "We speak as we have a right." Snarling more and more
openly, they surged forward, closing around the dais in a fiery mass.

In the cushions of the balcony, Leonorine hid her face with a cry; "They
will murder him!" And Elfgiva rose slowly from her chair, her eyes dark
with horror yet unable to tear themselves from the scene below. The
mail-clad King no longer looked to her like a man of flesh and blood
but like a figure of iron and steel, that the firelight was wrapping in
unendurable brightness. His sword was no more brilliantly hard than his
face, and his eyes were glittering points. The ring of steel was in his
voice as he answered:

"You speak as you have a right,--but you speak as men who have swines'
memories. Was it your support or your courage that won me the English
crown? It may be that if I had waited until pyre and fire you would have
done so, but it happened that before that time the English Witan gave it
to me as a gift, in return for my pledge to rule them justly. My meaning
in this judgment, and the others you dislike, is that I am going to keep
that pledge. You are my men, and as my men you have supported me, and
as my men I have rewarded you,--no chief was ever more open-handed with
property toward his following,--but if you think that on that account I
will endure from you trouble and lawlessness, you would better part from
me and get into your boats and go back to my other kingdom. For I tell
you now, openly and