"Yonder, then," she said, nodding to the dense alder thickets that
hid the river Tone from us, across a stretch of frozen mere or
flooded land. "I wot well that he who bides in Denewulf's cottage
is a thane, for he wears a gold ring, and wipes his hands in the
middle of the towel, and sits all day studying and troubling in his
mind in such wise that he is no good to any one--not even turning a
loaf that burns on the hearth before his eyes. Ay, they call him
Godred."

Then my heart leaped up with gladness, and I turned to seek
Heregar; but he was coming, and so I waited. Then the dame
clamoured for her reward, which Harek had as nearly forgotten as
had I.

"Mother," the scald said gravely, "when I work a spell with hammer
and nail, the footprint into which the nail is driven is of her who
cast the evil eye on me."

"Why, so it should be."

"Nay, but you drive it into your own," he said.

She looked, and then looked again. Then she stamped a new print
alongside the nailed one, and it was true. She had paid no heed to
the matter in her fury, and when she knew that she turned pale.

"Man," she cried, "help me out of this. I fear that I have even
nailed the evil overlooking fast to myself."

"Ay, so you have," said Harek; "but it is you who know little of
spells if you cannot tell what to do. Draw the nail out while
saying the spell backwards, and then put it into the right place
carefully. Then you will surely draw away also any ill that she has
already sent you, and fasten it to her."

"Then I think she will shrivel up," said the old witch, with much
content. "You are a great wizard, lord; and I thank you."

"Here is a true saying of a friend of mine," said Heregar, coming
up in time to hear this. "But what has come to you, king? have you
heard aught?"

Now when the old woman heard the thane name the king, before I
could answer she cried out and came and clung to my stirrup, taking
my hand and kissing it, and weeping over it till I was ashamed.

"What is this?" I said.

"O my lord the king!" she cried. "I thought that yon sad-faced man
in Denewulf's house was our king maybe, so wondrous proud are his
ways, and so strange things they hear him speak when he sleeps. But
now I am glad, for I have seen the king and kissed his hand, and,
lo, the sight of him is good. Ay, but glad will all the countryside
be to know that you live."

Then I knew not what to say; but Heregar beckoned to me, saying:

"Come, lea