King Olaf's Kinsman Part 51

More like those days it was yet to be, for as I reined up a voice cried:

"Ho, cousin what of the White Lady?"

And Olaf himself came and greeted me as I leapt from the saddle, holding my shoulders and looking at me as he took me into the light to scan my face. The other warrior was Ottar the scald, my friend, and now I had all that I could wish.

We sat together in the old places, and he said presently:

"You seem contented enough with c.n.u.t, to judge by your face, my cousin."

"I had forgotten him. I am content with all things," I answered.

"How came you here?"

"Nay, but you shall tell me of yourself first," he said. "Then I may have somewhat to say of my doings."

So I told him all.

"Why then, you must be wedded betimes," he said; "for I must see that wedding, though I would not have c.n.u.t catch me. The s.h.i.+ps are in Colchester river, and but for Egil I had never got there even."

Then I heard how he had been southward, and what deeds he had done; and it was Ottar who told me that, for Olaf had nought to say of himself. But presently when it came to the time when he turned his s.h.i.+ps homeward, Olaf took up the story.

"When I was minded to go on from this place, in Carl's water as they call it, even to Jerusalem and the holy places, I had the sign that I looked for--the sign that I should go back to Norway. I slept, and in my sleep there came to me a man, very n.o.ble looking and handsome, and yet terrible, and he stood by me and spoke to me saying, 'Fare back to the land that is thy birthright, for King of Norway thou shalt be for evermore.' And I knew this man for Olaf Tryggvesson my kinsman, and I think that he means that I shall gain all Norway for Christ's faith, and that my sons shall reign after me in the days to come."

"It is certain that you shall win Norway," I said, "for so also ran the words of the Senlac witch, 'For Olaf a kingdom and more than a kingdom--a name that shall never die'."

"I think men will remember me if I beat c.n.u.t in my own land," he said lightly. "So I came back as far as the Seine river, and there was Eadward Atheling trying to raise men against c.n.u.t his stepfather. I knew not that that peaceful youth could rage so terribly when occasion was, It was ill to speak of c.n.u.t to him--or of the queen either. Now I spoke with his few thanes, and they held that it was of no use to try to attack England. None would rise to help him. But he begged me to go with him for the sake of old days and common hatred of the Dane. Wherefore I thought that it was as well for England that he learnt his foolishness, and we went together, and were well beaten off from the first place we put into. So he went back contented to try no more, and I put in here on my way homeward."

Then I said:

"Do you blame me for submitting to c.n.u.t?"

"You could do nought else," he answered. "And from all I hear he is likely to be a good king. Mind you that vision we saw on the sh.o.r.e in Normandy?"

"It has come to pa.s.s as you read it," I answered.

Then he said:

"Yet more is to come to pa.s.s of that vision. c.n.u.t will reign and will pa.s.s when his time comes, and with him will pa.s.s his kingdoms.

There will be none of his line who shall keep them {16}."

"After him Eadward, therefore, or Alfred, should they live," I said, musing. For the words of dying Ethelred came back to me--his foretelling of the strong hand followed by the wise.

"That will be seen," answered Olaf. "Now I came to know if you were yet landless and desperate so that you would sail to Norway with me. But now I cannot ask you that. Nevertheless I shall be more glad to see you wedded and at rest here, for I think that you have seen your share of war."

"And I have been unlucky therein," said I.

"Now has your luck changed," said Olaf. "And all is well."

So it came to pa.s.s that our wedding was made the happier by the presence of Olaf the king and by the songs of Ottar the scald. And Egil came from Colchester, and with him many of those of my men who were left, and Olaf's s.h.i.+p captains, so that with Sudbury folk and our own people there was a merry gathering enough, and the little church was over full when Ailwin and Oswin were ready at the altar.

After that was over, Olaf came forward and gave to the priests a great chain of gold links, bidding them lay it on the altar for a gift towards rebuilding the house of G.o.d.

"Only one thing do I ask you," he said, speaking in a hushed voice as he stood there. "And that is that no week shall pa.s.s without remembrance of those of my men who died for England on Leavenheath."

And Oswin said:

"It shall be so, King Olaf, for it has already become our custom here. Now will we remember your name also."

Ten years agone it is since Olaf sailed away from us and won Norway from the hand of c.n.u.t. Now and then come Nors.e.m.e.n to me from him when they put into Colchester or Maldon, and ever do they bring gifts for Hertha and Olaf and Eadmund and Uldra, the children that are ours. For all things have gone well with us, and with all England under the strong and wise rule of c.n.u.t the king.

I stood beside him on As.h.i.+ngdon hill when he came to see to the building of the churches on the battlefield at the place of the first fight, and at As.h.i.+ngdon, and at Hockley where the flight ended. And he dedicated that at As.h.i.+ngdon to St. Andrew, in memory of Eadmund his n.o.ble foe and brother king, for on the day of that saint Streone slew him.

There c.n.u.t the king stood and spoke to me:

"I build these churches, and their walls will decay in time, and maybe men will forget who built them, but the deeds of Eadmund will not be forgotten, for there are few men who have fought a losing fight so sternly and steadfastly as did he. Nor shall men forget you, Redwald, and those who fought and died here, and on the other fields that are rich with their blood spilt for love of England.

None may say that their lives are wasted, for I see before us a new brotherhood that will rise out of our long strife, because Dane and Saxon and Anglian know each other for men."

So he said, and so it is, and our England is rising from the strife into a mighty oneness that has never been hers before.

We went to London before long to see the great wedding that was made for G.o.dwine, my friend, and Gyda, the fair daughter of Ulf the jarl, and niece of c.n.u.t himself. There also were Relf and the lady of Penhurst, and Eldred and s.e.xberga, and many more of Wulfnoth's thanes. But the old viking had gone to his place beyond the grave, and I saw him no more after I left him at Berkeley.

G.o.dwine is the greatest man in England now, and well loved. All men speak of his deeds in Denmark, whither he took the king's English host when troubles were there, and he is one of those who hold the kingdoms together since Ulf and Thorkel and Eirik are dead. They were slain in petty quarrels, and it is ever in my mind that it was in judgment on them for treating with Streone the traitor in the days when c.n.u.t had not yet taken the kings.h.i.+p and rule into his own hands. I hold him blameless of that, for what could a boy of thirteen, however wise, do against their word and plans?

But Thrand of Colchester lives yet, being port reeve of his own town under Egil, my good friend.

None have ever seen the White Lady of the Mere again, nor has aught ill befallen my thrall, who thought he saw her. I gave him his freedom when we were wedded, and he is over the herds for us. But ever do I choose rather to call my dear one "Uldra," the name which she borrowed from the White Lady when I met her at Bosham, and asked what I should call her, for by that name I learnt to love her.

Now one day she bade me take her to the great mound of Boadicea the queen beyond the river, for she had somewhat to show me, and half fearing I went. But she had no fear of the place, and one might see that she knew her way through the pathless woods around it well, so that I wondered. She led me across the water which stands around it in the old trench, stepping on fallen trees which made a sort of bridge, and then went to a place where the bushes grew thickly and tangled.

"Can you see aught strange here?" she said to me.

I could see nothing but thicket of briar and sloe climbing the steep side of the mound. And therefore she parted them, not easily at first, for none had touched them for long; and there before me was the opening of a low stone-sided-and-roofed pa.s.sage, leading to the heart of the mound.

"Enter," she said. "This is our hiding place in sorest need."

"Hardly dare I do so. It is ill to disturb the mighty dead," I answered.

"The dead queen has sheltered us helpless women well," she answered. "She is not disturbed, for this is not her resting place."

So I went in, stooping double, for the stone pa.s.sage was very low.

I cannot tell whence the stone came, nor why the place was made unless it were to receive some chiefs of the Iceni, whose bones were gone had they ever been there, for there was a stone chamber in the mound's heart, fitted with stone seats and stone beds, as it were, and four people might well live in that place, for it was cool in summer and warm in winter, but very silent.

I spoke not a word till we were in the suns.h.i.+ne again, and then I s.h.i.+vered.

"I could not have entered that place alone," I said.