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Havelok The Dane written by Charles Whistler

C >> Charles Whistler >> Havelok The Dane




"How should we know that you are the king's son indeed?" asked Grim.

"I am Havelok, son of Gunnar," the boy said gravely. "Yon traitor,
Hodulf, has slain my father, and my two sisters, and driven out my
mother, whither I cannot tell, and now he would drown me."

Then the boy could hardly keep a brave front any longer, and he added,
"Yet I do not think that you will do to me as I heard him bid you."

Then came over Grim a great pity and sorrow that it should seem needful
thus to sue to him, and there grew a lump in his throat, so that for a
while he might not answer, and the boy thought him in doubt, so that in
his eyes there was a great fear. But Leva wept outright, and threw
herself on her knees beside him, putting her arms round him as he sat,
speaking words of comfort.

Then Grim knelt also, and said, "Thralls of yours are we, Havelok, son
of Gunnar, and for you shall our lives be given before Hodulf shall harm
you. Nor shall he know that you live until the day comes when you can go
to him sword in hand and helm on head, with half the men of this realm
at your back, and speak to him of what he did and what he planned, and
the vengeance that shall be therefor."

So Grim took on himself to be Havelok's foster-father, and, as he ended,
the boy said with glowing eyes, "I would that I were grown up. How long
shall this be before it comes to pass?"

And then of a sudden he said, as a tired child will, "Friends, I am
sorely weary. Let me sleep."

So Leva took him in her arms and laid him in their own bed; and at once
he slept, so that she left him and came back to Grim by the fireside,
for there was much to be said.

First of all it was clear that Havelok must be hidden, and it was not to
be supposed that Hodulf would be satisfied until he had seen the thrall
to whom he had trusted such a secret come back for his reward. If he
came not he would be sought; and then he would find out to whom he had
spoken, and there would be trouble enough.

But it seemed easy to hide Havelok on board the ship, and sail with him
to England as soon as possible. A few days might well pass before a
thrall could get to Hodulf, so that he would suspect nothing just at
first. There were merchants in England who would care for the boy well,
and the two boats might be sunk, so that the king should not ask whose
they were. So when Grim came home again the fisher would be thought of
as drowned on his errand, and Hodulf would be content.

But then, after a little talk of this, it was plain that all the town
could not be told to say that the fisher was drowned on such a night,
and Hodulf would leave naught undone to find the truth of the matter. So
the puzzle became greater, and the one thing that was clear was that
Grim was in sore danger, and Havelok also.

Then suddenly outside the dogs barked, and a voice which they obeyed
quieted them. Grim sprang for his axe, which hung on the wall, and went
to the door, whereon someone was knocking gently.

"Open, uncle; it is I, Arngeir."

"What does the boy want at this time?" said Grim, taking down the great
bar that kept the door, axe in hand, for one must be cautious in such
times as these.

Arngeir came in---a tall young man of twenty, handsome, and like Grim
in ways, for he was his brother's son.

"Lucky am I in finding you astir," he said. "I thought I should have had
to wake you all. Are you just home from sea, or just going out?"

"Not long home," answered Leva; "but what has brought you?"

"I have a guest for you, if I may bring one here at this hour."

"A friend of yours never comes at the wrong time," Grim said. "Why not
bring him in?"

"If it were a friend of mine and a man he would do well enough at my
house for the night," said Arngeir, smiling; "but the one for whom I
have come is a lady, and, I think, one in sore trouble."

"Who is she?" asked my mother, wondering much.

"From the king's town, certainly," answered Arngeir, "but I do not know
her name. Truth to tell, I forgot to ask it, for she is sorely spent;
and so I made haste to come to you."

Then Leva would know how a lady came at this time to Arngeir's house,
for he was alone, save for his four men, being an orphan without other
kin beside us, and his house was close to our shipyard and the sea.

"She came not to me, but I found her," he replied. "My horse is sick,
and I must get up an hour ago and see to it for the second time tonight.
Then as I came from the stable I saw someone go towards the shipyard,
and, as I thought, into the open warehouse. It was dark, and I could not
tell then if this was man or woman; but I knew that no one had business
there, and there are a few things that a thief might pick up. So I took
an axe and one of the dogs, and went to see what was on hand, but at
first there was naught to be found of anyone. If it had not been for the
dog, I think that I should have gone away, but he went into the corner
where the bales of wool are set, and there he whined strangely, and when
I looked, there was this lady on the bales, and she was weeping and sore
afraid. So I asked her what was amiss, and it was not easy to get an
answer at first. But at last she told me that she had escaped from the
burning of the king's town, and would fain be taken across the sea into
some place of peace. So I cheered her by saying that you would surely
help her; and then I took her to my house and came to you. Worn and rent
are her garments, but one may see that they have been rich, and I deem
her some great lady."

"Go and bring her here, husband," said my mother, on hearing that.

But he was already going, and at once he and Arngeir went out and down
the street. There were many other ladies and their children who had
taken refuge here with the townsfolk after the burning, and the coming
of this one was but another count in the long tale of trouble that began
on the Welsh shore with the ways of Gunnar, the church's bane.

My father was long gone, and the day was breaking when he came back. My
mother slept in the great chair before the fire, for waiting had wearied
her, but she woke as she heard Grim's footstep, and unbarred the door to
him, ready to welcome the guest that she looked for. But he was alone,
and on his face was the mark of some new trouble, and that a great one.

He came in and barred the door after him, and then sat down wearily and
ate for the first time since we had had our meal at sea; and while he
did so Leva asked him nothing, wondering what was wrong, but knowing
that she would hear in good time. And when he had eaten well he spoke.

"The lady is Eleyn the queen. She has been wandering for these many days
from place to place, sometimes in the woods, and sometimes in hiding in
the cottages of the poor folk, always with a fear of staying in one
place, lest Hodulf should find her, for it is known that he is seeking
her. Then at last one told her of my ship, and she is here to seek me."

Now one may know what the wonder and pity of my mother was, and she
would fain have gone to her. But Grim had left her at Arngeir's house,
for folk were stirring in the town, and there were many who would know
the queen if they saw her.

"It will soon be known that Arngeir has a guest," my mother said,
"whereas none would have wondered had she been here."

"By this time tomorrow it will not matter if Hodulf knows," answered
Grim, "for she will be safe."

"Where will you hide her then and what of Havelok?"

"For those two there is no safety but across the sea, and they are the
most precious cargo that I shall ever have carried. Already Arngeir and
the men are at work on the ship, getting the rollers under her keel,
that she may take the water with the next tide. I shall sail with the
tide that comes with the darkness again, saying that I shall find cargo
elsewhere in other ports, as I have done once before."

"I had not looked to say farewell to you quite so soon," my mother said;
"but this is right. Now I will have all things ready, that the queen
shall be in what comfort she may on the voyage. But it will be well that
none shall know, even of your seamen, who the passengers are, else will
word go to Hodulf in some way hereafter that Havelok has escaped."

"I have thought of that," answered Grim. "It will be best that none, not
even Radbard, shall know who this is whom we have in the house. A chance
word goes far sometimes."

"The boy will tell his name."

"There are many who are named after him, and that is no matter. Do you
speak to him, for it is plain that he has sense enough, and bid him say
naught but that he and his mother have escaped from the town, and, if
you will, that he escaped in the sack. I will speak to Radbard, and
there will be no trouble. Only Arngeir must know the truth, and that not
until we are on the high seas perhaps."

So there seemed to be no more fear, and in an hour the house was astir,
and there was work enough for all in preparing for the voyage. As for
me, I went down to the ship with my father, and worked there.

Now, I will say that not for many a long year did I know who this
foster-brother of mine was. It was enough for me to be told that he was
the son of some great man or other with whom Hodulf had a private feud.
Nor did I ever speak of that night's work to any, for my father bade me
not to do so. Presently I knew, of course, that the lady was Havelok's
mother; but that told me nothing, for I never heard her name.

We worked at the ship for three hours or so, stowing the bales of wool
and the other little cargo we had; and then my father sent me to the
fishing-boats for a pair of oars belonging to the ship's boat that were
there, and, as it fell out, it was a good thing that I and not one of
the men went. When I came to the place where they were drawn up on the
beach, as we had left them last night, there was a stranger talking to
some of the fisher folk, who were working at their nets not far off; and
though another might have paid no heed to this, I, with the remembrance
of last night fresh in my mind, wondered if he was by any chance there
on an errand from Hodulf. I thought that, were I he, I should surely
send someone to know, at least, if the fisher went out last night after
I had spoken with him. So I loitered about until the man went away,
which he did slowly, passing close to me, and looking at the boats
carefully, as if he would remember them. Then I went and asked the men
to whom he had been speaking what he wanted. They said that they
wondered that he had not spoken to me, for he had been asking about my
father and of his ship, and if he took any passenger with him this
voyage. It would seem that he wanted to sail with us, from all he said.

Certainly he had begun by asking whose boats these were, and wondered
that a merchant should go fishing at all, when there was no need for him
to do so. Also he had asked if Grim had been out last night, and they
had of course told him that he had not, for neither boat had been
shifted from the berth she had been given when we came in at dusk.

"Ah," he had said, "well did I wot that your merchant would do no night
work," and so made a jest of the matter, saying that in his country it
were below the state of a merchant to have aught to do with a thrall's
work. He was certainly a Norseman, and they thought that I should find
him with my father. Now I thought otherwise, and also I saw that all was
known. This man was a spy of Hodulf's, and would go straight back to his
master. My father must hear of this at once; and I hurried back to the
ship, and took him aside and told him. And as I did so his face grew
grey under the tan that sea and wind had given it, and I knew not
altogether why.

"Tell Arngeir to come to me," he said; "I am going to the jarl. Tell no
one, but go home and say to mother that I shall be with her in an hour.
Then come back and work here."

Then he and Arngeir went to Sigurd, and told him all from the beginning.
And when the jarl heard, he was glad for the safety of the queen and of
Havelok, but he said that there was no doubt that Denmark was no place
for Grim any longer.

"That is my thought also," said my father; "but now am I Havelok's
foster-father, and for him I can make a home across the sea, where I
will train him up for the time that shall surely come, when he shall
return and take his father's kingdom."

"That is well," the jarl said, "but you have little time. What Hodulf
will do one cannot say, but he may come here with his men behind him to
force me to give you up, and the town will be searched for Havelok, and
both he and the queen will be lost."

"If that is so," my father answered, "we have time enough. Two hours for
the spy to reach his master; one hour for Hodulf to hear him, and to
bethink himself; an hour for gathering his men; and four hours, at the
least, in which to get here. Eight hours, at the least, have we, and the
tide serves in six. I had thought of waiting till dark, but that is of
no use now. We may as well go, for there are true men here, who will
wait to welcome him who flies when he comes again."

"This is a sore wrench for you and yours, good friend and faithful,"
Sigurd said, "but it must be. Nevertheless I can make your loss as
little as it may be. You shall sell all that is yours to me at your own
price, that you may have the means to make a new home well, wherever you
may choose."

At first my father would not have that, saying that there would be much
trouble on his account presently.

But Sigurd said that, first, the trouble was not of his making at all;
and next, that if Hodulf plundered the place, it was as well to send
away as much as possible beforehand; and lastly---and this was what
touched my father most---that he must think of his charge.

"Why, old friend, you are giving up all for Havelok, as would I. And am
I to have no share in the training of him for the days to come?"

Therewith he waited for no more words, but went to his great chest, and
took thereout chain after chain of linked gold rings, and put them in a
canvas bag, without weighing or counting them, and gave them to Grim.

"Lord, here is enough to buy half the town!" my father said.

"What of that? The town is Havelok's by right, and maybe you can buy him
a village across seas with it. But give me a full quittance for my
purchase of your goods and cattle and house, that I may have right to them."

That Grim did at once, before witnesses who were called in, none
wondering that he chose thus to secure his property while he was away,
because Hodulf might make demands on it. They did not know that any
money changed hands, and thought it formal only, and a wise thing to be
done.

After that Grim and Arngeir took leave of the jarl, thanking him, and
they went to our house.

There waited my mother anxiously enough, for she knew from my message
that there was somewhat new to be told, or my father had not left the
ship. Nor do I think that what was to be done was altogether a surprise
to her, for she had thought much, and knew the dangers that might crop
up. So, being very brave, she strove to make light of the trouble that
leaving her home cost her, and set about gathering the few things that
she could take.

Now on the hearth sat Withelm, tending the fire, and he heard presently
that we were all to go to sea; and that pleased him well, for he had
ever longed to sail with his father. As for Havelok, he had waked once,
and had well eaten, and now was sleeping again.

Then said Withelm, "When will the sacrifice to Aegir and Ran [5]
for luck on the swan's path be?"

"Scant time have we for that," my father said, "for tide will not wait."

"Then," said the boy, "it were well to take the stone altar with us, and
make sacrifice on board. I have heard that Aegir is wrathful and strong."

Then my father said to Leva, "The boy is right in one thing, and that
is, that if we are to make a new home beyond the sea, the blue stones
that have belonged to our family since time untold should go with us,
else will there be no luck in this flitting."

"What matter?"

"West they came with us in the days of Odin, and west they shall go with
us once more," my father said.

And there was an end of question on the matter, for presently Arngeir
came up with the team of oxen and a sled, and my father hastily cried to
Thor as in time of sudden war, and then on the sled they loaded the
stones easily. I helped, and it is certain that they were no trouble to
uproot or lift, though they were bedded in the ground and heavy.
Wherefrom we all thought that the flitting was by the will of the Norns,
and likely to turn out well.

But in no way could we lift Thor himself. It was as if he were rooted,
and maybe he was so. Therefore we left him, but sadly.

One may suppose that, had any noticed that Grim was taking these sacred
things with him, there would have been a talk; but as we sailed light,
none thought them aught but needed ballast; and we brought other stones
to the ship with them and afterwards.

Of course folk did wonder at this sudden sailing of ours, but my father
made no secret of his wish to get out of the way of Hodulf, who had
taken the ships of one or two other men elsewhere, so that all thought
he feared that his would be the next to be seized, and deemed him
prudent in going. As for our own crew, they were told that it was
certain that the ship would be taken unless we went on this tide, and so
they worked well.

Very early in the morning, and unseen, Arngeir had brought Eleyn, the
queen, on board, and she was in the cabin under the raised after deck
all the while that the bustle of making ready was going on. Only my
father went in there at any time, unless he gave the key to one of us,
for there he kept his valuables and the arms.

Presently, when all the men were forward and busy, I got Havelok on
board unnoticed. We had kept Withelm running to and fro from ship to
house with little burdens all the morning, mightily busy; and then, when
the chance came, Havelok in Withelm's clothes, and with a bundle on his
head, came running to me. I waited by the after cabin, and I opened the
door quickly and let him in. Then he saw his mother; and how those two
met, who had thought each other lost beyond finding, I will not try to say.

I closed the door softly and left them, locking it again, and found
Withelm close to me, and Arngeir watching to see that all went well.

Soon after that there came a Norseman, dressed as a merchant, who talked
with my father of goods, and lading, and whither he was bound, and the
like. When he went away, he thought that he had found out that we were
for the Texel, but I do not know that he was from Hodulf. There had been
time for him to send a spy in haste, however, if he wished to watch us;
but at any rate this man heard naught of our charges.

Then, at the last moment, my mother and the children came on board, and
at once we hauled out of the harbour. I mind that an old woman ran along
the wharf when she found that all were going, and cried that Dame Leva
had not paid for certain fowls bought of her; and my father laughed in
lightness of heart, and threw her a silver penny, so that she let us go
with a blessing. And after that it did not matter what the people
thought of this going of ours, for in an hour we were far at sea with a
fair wind on the quarter, heading south at first, that the Norseman
might see us, but when the land was dim astern, and there was no more
fear, bearing away south and west for the Humber in far-off England.

Now that was the last I saw of Denmark for many a long year, and I knew
it must be so. But, as I have told, none but my father and mother, and
now Arngeir, knew all that we were carrying with us.


CHAPTER IV. ACROSS THE SWAN'S PATH.

All that night, and during the morning of the next day, we sailed
steadily with a fresh northwest breeze that bade fair to strengthen
by-and-by. If it held, we should see the cliffs of Northumbria on our
bow tomorrow morning, and then would run down the coast to the Humber,
where my father meant to put in first. He thought to leave the queen and
Havelok with merchants whom he knew in Lindsey, and with them would stay
my mother and the little ones while he made a trading voyage elsewhere.
There would be time enough to find out the best place in which to make a
home when the autumn came, and after he had been to an English port or
two that he did not know yet.

When half the morning was past, the sun shone out warmly, and all came
on deck from the after cabin, where the ladies and children were. Our
men knew by this time that we had passengers, flying like ourselves from
Hodulf, and therefore they were not at all surprised to see Havelok and
his mother with their mistress. None of them had ever seen either of
them before, as it happened, though I do not think that any could have
recognized the queen as she was then, wan and worn with the terror of
her long hiding. Very silent was she as she sat on deck gazing ever at
the long white wake of the ship that seemed to stretch for a little way
towards Denmark, only to fade away as a track over which one may never
go back. And silent, too, was my mother; but the children, who had no
care, were pleased with all things, and Raven and I were full of the
ways of old seamen.

So everything went quietly until after we had our midday meal. We were
all amidships on the wide deck, except my father and Arngeir, who sat
side by side on the steersman's bench on the high poop. There was no
spray coming on board, for we were running, and the ship was very
steady. Raven and I were forward with the men, busy with the many little
things yet to be done to the rigging and such like that had been left in
the haste at last, and there was no thought but that this quiet, save
for some shift of wind maybe, would last until we saw the English shore.

Now I do not know if my father had seen aught from the after deck, but
presently he came forward, and passed up the steps to the forecastle,
and there sat down on the weather rail, looking out to leeward for some
time quietly. I thought that maybe he had sighted some of the high land
on the Scots coast, for it was clear enough to see very far, and so I
went to see also. But there was nothing, and we talked of this and that
for ten minutes, when he said, "Look and see if you can catch sight of
aught on the skyline just aft of the fore stay as you sit."

I looked long, and presently caught sight of something white that showed
for a moment as we heaved up on a wave, and then was gone.

"Somewhat I saw," I said, "but it has gone. It might have been the top
of a sail."

Then I caught a glimpse of it again, and my father saw it also, and, as
we watched, it hove up slowly until it was plain to be seen. The vessel
it belonged to was sailing in such a way as to cross our course in the
end, though she was only a few points nearer the wind than we were. It
seemed that she was swifter than ourselves, too, from the way she kept
her place on our bow. Now a merchant must needs look on every sail with
more or less distrust, as there is always a chance of meeting with
ship-plundering Vikings, though the best of them will do naught but take
toll from a trader on the high seas. So before long all our men were
watching the stranger, and soon it was plain that she was a longship,
fresh from her winter quarters. We thought, therefore, that she was not
likely to trouble about us, having no need of stores as yet, and we
being plainly in ballast only. Nor did she alter her course in any way,
but mile after mile she sailed with us, always edging up nearer as she
went, until at last we could see the men on her bows and the helmsman at
his place.

I thought that one could hardly see a more handsome ship than she was,
fresh with new paint, and with her dragon head shining golden in the
sun. But I had seen her before, and that in no pleasant way. She was the
ship of which I have already spoken--that which we beat off two years
ago, taking their cargo of plunder by way of amends for being attacked.

There was this difference, however, at that time, that then we had all
our men on board, and the Viking was short-handed after a fighting raid,
whereas now we had but fifteen men instead of five-and-twenty, because
in the hurry we had not had time to summon any who lived beyond the
town, and it was plain that the Viking had a full crew, maybe of sixty men.

"It is in my mind," my father said to Arngeir, "that our old foe will
think twice before he attacks us again; but seeing whom we have to deal
with, it is as well to be ready. We might keep him off with arrows, if
he does not find out how few we are, should he make an attempt on us;
but if he boards, we must submit, and make the best bargain we can."

So he passed word that the men were to lie down on deck, leaving only a
few to be seen, that the Viking might think us as he had known us
before; and then the arms-chests were opened, and the bows and throwing
weapons were set to hand by us boys while the men armed themselves.