THE KING'S GUARDSMAN
Something great
Is not always to be given.
Praise is often for a trifle bought.
Ha'vama'l
It was the day after this brawl, when the guardsman Leif returned to
Nidaros. Alwin was brought to the notice of his new master in a most
unexpected fashion.
For one reason or another, the camp had been deserted early. At
day-break, Egil slung his bow across his back, provided himself with a
store of arrows and a bag of food, and set out for the mountains,--to
hunt, he told Tyrker, sullenly, as he passed. Two hours later, Valbrand
called for horses and hawks, and he and young Haraldsson, with Helga and
her Saxon waiting-maid, rode south for a day's sport in the pine woods.
Helga was the best comrade in the camp, whether one wished to go
hawking, or wanted a hand at fencing, or only asked for a quiet game of
chess by the leaping firelight. Her ringing laugh, her frank glance, and
her beautiful glowing face made all other maidens seem dull and
lifeless. Alwin dimly felt that hating her was going to be no easy task,
and he dared not raise his eyes as she rode past him. Instead he forced
himself to stare at the reflection of his scarred face in the silver
horn he was wiping; and he blew and blew upon the sparks of his anger.
Noticing it, Helga frowned regretfully. "I cannot blame him if he will
not speak to me," she said to Sigurd Haraldsson. "The nature of a
high-born man is such that a blow is like poison in his blood. It must
rankle and fester and break out before he can be healed. I do not think
he could have been more lordlike in his father's castle than he was
yesterday. Hereafter I shall treat him as honorably as I treat you, or
any other jarl-born man."
"In this you show yourself as high-minded as I have always thought you,"
answered Sigurd, turning toward her a face aglow with pleasure.
By the middle of the forenoon, everyone had gone, this way or that, to
hunt, or fish, or swim, or loiter about the city. There were left only a
man with a broken leg and a man with a sprained shoulder, throwing dice
on a bench in the sun; Alwin, whistling absently as he swept out the
sleeping-house; and Rolf the Wrestler sitting cross-legged under a tree,
sharpening his sword and humming snatches of his favorite song:
"Hew'd we with the Hanger!
Hard upon the time 't was
When in Gothlandia going
To give death to the serpent."
Rolf had declined to go hunting, on the plea of his horse's lameness.
Now, as he sat working and humming, he was presumably thinking up some
other diversion,--and the frequent glances he sent toward the thrall
seemed to indicate that the latter was to be concerned in it.
Finally Rolf called to Alwin: "Ho there, Englishman! Come hither and
tell me what you think of this for a weapon."
It needed no urging to make Alwin exchange a broom for a sword. He came
and lifted the great blade, and made passes in the air, and examined the
hilt of brass-studded wood.
"Saw I never a finer weapon," he admitted. "The hilt fits to one's hand
better than those gold things on Sigurd Haraldsson's sword. What is it
called?" For in those days a good blade bore a name as certainly as a
horse or a ship.
Rolf answered, in his soft voice: "It is called 'The Biter.' And it has
bitten not a few,--but it is fitting that others should speak of that.
Since the handle fits your grasp so well, will you not hold it a little
longer, while I borrow Long Lodin's weapon here, and we try each other's
skill?" He made a motion to rise, then checked himself and hesitated:
"Or it may be," he added gently, "that you do not care to strive against
one as strong as I?"
"Now, by St. Dunstan, you need not spare me thus!" Alwin cried hotly.
"Never have I turned my back on a challenge; and never will I, while the
red blood runs in my veins. Get your weapon quickly." He shook the big
blade in the air, and threw himself into a posture of defence.
But the Wrestler made no move to imitate him. He remained sitting and
slowly shaking his head.
"Those are fine words, and I say nothing against your sincerity; but my
appetite has changed. I will tell you what we will do instead. When your
work is done, we will betake ourselves across the river to Thorgrim
Svensson's camp and see the horse-fight he is going to have. He has a
black stallion of Keingala's breed, named Flesh-tearer, that it is not
necessary to prod with a stick. When he stands on his hind legs and
bites, you would swear he had as many feet as Odin's gray Sleipnir. Do
you not think that would be good entertainment?"
For a moment Alwin did not know what to think. He did not believe that
Rolf was afraid of him; and if the challenge was withdrawn, surely that
ended the matter. A horse fight? He had enjoyed no such spectacle as
that since the Michaelmas Day when his father had the great bear-baiting
in the pit at his English castle. And a ramble through the sun and the
wind, a taste of liberty--!
"It seems to me that it would be very enjoyable," he agreed. He started
eagerly to finish his work, when a thought caught him like a lariat and
whirled him back. "I am forgetting the yoke upon my neck, for the first
time in a twelvemonth! Is it allowed a dog of a slave to seek
entertainment?"
Mild displeasure stiffened Rolf's big frame. He said gravely: "It is
plain your thoughts do not do me much honor, since you think I have so
little authority. I tell you now that you will always be free to do
whatever I ask of you. If there is anything wrong in the doing, it is I
who must answer for it, not you. That is the law, while you are bound
and I am free."
A fresh sense of the shame of his thraldom broke over Alwin like a
burning wave. It benumbed him for a second; then he laughed with jeering
bitterness.
"It is true that I have become a dog. I can follow any man's whistle,
and it is the man who is responsible. I ask you to forget that for a
moment I thought myself a man." In sudden frenzy, he whirled the great
sword around his head and lunged at the pine tree behind Rolf, so that
the blade was left quivering in the trunk.
It was weather to gladden a man's heart,--a sunlit sky overhead, and a
fresh breeze blowing that set every drop of blood a-leaping with the
desire to walk, walk, walk, to the very rim of the world. The thrall
started out beside the Wrestler in sullen silence; but before they had
gone a mile, his black mood had blown into the fiord. River bank and
lanes were sweet with flowers, and every green hedge they passed was
a-flutter with nesting birds. The traders' booths were full of beautiful
things; musicians, acrobats, and jugglers with little trick dogs, were
everywhere,--one had only to stop and look. A dingy trading vessel lay
in the river, loaded with great red apples, some Norman's winter store.
One of the crew who knew Rolf threw some after him, by way of greeting;
and the two munched luxuriously as they walked along. They passed many
Viking camps, gay with streamers and striped linens, where groups of
brawny fair-haired men wrestled and tried each other's skill, or sat at
rough tables under the trees, drinking and singing. In one place they
were practising with bow and arrow; and, being quite impartial in their
choice of a target, one of the archers sent a shaft within an inch of
Rolf's head, purely for the expected pleasure of seeing him start and
dodge. Finding that neither he nor Alwin would go a step faster, they
rained shafts about their ears as long as they were within bow-shot, and
saw them out of range with a cheer.
The road branched into one of the main thoroughfares, and they met
pretty maidens who smiled at them, melancholy minstrels who frowned at
them, and grim-mouthed warriors whose eyes were too intent on future
battles even to see them. Occasionally Rolf quietly saluted some young
guardsman; and, to the thrall's surprise, the warrior answered not only
with friendliness but even with respect. It seemed strange that one of
Rolf's mild aspect should be held in any particular esteem by such young
fire-eaters. Once they encountered a half-tipsy seaman, who made a
snatch at Rolf's apple, and succeeded in knocking it from his hand into
the dust. The Wrestler only fixed his blue eyes upon him in a long look,
but the man went down on his knees as though he had been hit.
"I did not know it was you, Rolf Erlingsson," he hiccoughed over and
over in maudlin terror. "I beg you not to be angry."
"It is seldom that I have seen such a coward as that," Alwin said in
disgust as they walked on.
Rolf turned upon him his gentle smile. "It is your opinion, then, that a
man must be a coward to fear me?"
Alwin did not answer immediately: of a sudden it occurred to him to
doubt the Wrestler's mild manner.
While he was still hesitating, Rolf caught him lightly around the waist
and swung him over a hedge into a field where a dozen red-and-yellow
tented booths were clustered. "These are Thorgrim Svensson's tents," he
explained, following as coolly as though that were the accepted mode of
entrance. "Yonder he is,--that lean little man with the freckled face.
He is a great seafaring man. I promise you that you will see many
precious things from all over the world."
Approaching the booths, Alwin had immediate proof of this statement, for
bench and bush and ground were littered with garments and furs and
weapons, and odds-and-ends of spoil, as if a ship had been overturned on
the spot. The lean little man whom Rolf had pointed out stood in the
midst of it all, examining and directing. He was dressed in coarse
homespun of the dingy colors of trading vessels, gray and brown and
rusty black, which contrasted oddly with the mantle of gorgeous purple
velvet he was at that moment trying on. His little freckled face was
wrinkled into a hundred shrewd puckers, and his eyes were two twinkling
pin-points of sharpness. He seemed to thrust their glance into Alwin, as
he advanced to meet his visitors; and the men who were helping him
paused and looked at the thrall with expectant grins.
Rolf said blandly, "Greeting, Thorgrim Svensson! We have come to see
your horse-fight. This is Alwin, Edmund Jarl's son, of England. Bad luck
has made him Leif's thrall, but his accomplishments have made me his
friend."
He spoke with the utmost mildness, merely glancing at the grinning crew;
yet they sobered as though their mirth had been turned off by a faucet,
and Thorgrim gave the thrall a civil welcome.
"It is a great pity," he continued, addressing the Wrestler, "that you
cannot see the Flesh-Tearer, since you came for that purpose; but it has
happened that he has lamed himself, and will not be able to fight for a
week. Do not go away on that account, however. My ship has brought me
some cloaks even finer than the one you covet,"--here it seemed to Alwin
as if the little man winked at Rolf,--"and if the Englishman is as good
a swordsman as you have said--ahem!" He broke off with a cough, and
endeavored to hide his abruptness by turning away and picking a fur
mantle off a pile of costly things.
Alwin's momentary surprise was forgotten at sight of the treasure thus
disclosed. Beneath the cloak, thrown down like a thing of little value,
lay an open book. It was written in Anglo-Saxon letters of gold and
silver; its crumpled pages were of rarest rose-tinted vellum; its
covers, sheets of polished wood gold-embossed and adorned with golden
clasps. Even Alfred's royal kinswoman had never owned so splendid a
volume. The English boy caught it up with an exclamation of delight, and
turned the pages hungrily, trying whether his mother's lessons would
come back to him.
He was brought to himself by the touch of Rolf's hand on his shoulder.
They were all looking at him, he found,--once more with expectant grins.
Opposite him an ungainly young fellow in slave's garb--and with the air
of belonging in it--stood as though waiting, a naked sword in his hand.
"Now I have still more regard for you when I see that you have also the
trick of reading English runes," the Wrestler said. "But I ask you to
leave them a minute and listen to me. Thorgrim here has a thrall whom he
holds to be most handy with a sword; but I have wagered my gold necklace
against his velvet cloak that you are a better man than he."
The meaning of the group dawned on Alwin then: he drew himself up with
freezing haughtiness. "It is not likely that I will strive against a
low-born serf, Rolf Erlingsson. You dare to put an insult upon me
because luck has left your hair uncut."
A sound like the expectant drawing-in of many breaths passed around the
circle. Alwin braced himself to withstand Rolf's fist; but the Wrestler
only drew back and looked at him reprovingly.
"Is it an insult, Alwin of England, to take you at your word? It is not
three hours since you vowed never to turn your back on a challenge while
the red blood ran in your veins. Have witches sucked the blood out of
you, that your mind is so different when you are put to the test?"
At least enough blood was left to crimson Alwin's cheeks at this
reminder. Those had been his very words, stung by Rolf's taunt.
The smouldering doubt he had felt burst into flame and burned through
every fibre. What if it were all a trap, a plot?--if Rolf had brought
him there on purpose to fight, the horses being only a pretext?
Thorgrim's wink, his allusion to Alwin's swordsmanship, it had all been
arranged between them; the velvet cloak was the clew! Rolf had wished to
possess it. He had persuaded Thorgrim to stake it on his thrall's
skill,--then he had brought Alwin to win the wager for him. _Brought_
him, like a trained stallion or a trick dog!
He turned to fling the deceit in the Wrestler's teeth. Rolf's fair face
was as innocent as those of the pictured saints in the Saxon book. Alwin
wavered. After all, what proof had he?
Jeering whispers and half-suppressed laughter became audible around him.
The group believed that his hesitation arose from timidity. Ignoring the
smart of yesterday's wound, he snatched the sword Rolf held out to him,
and started forward.
His foot struck against the Saxon book which he had let fall. As he
picked it up and laid it reverently aside, it suggested something to
him.
"Thorgrim Svensson," he said, pausing, "because I will not have it said
that I am afraid to look a sword in the face, I will fight your
serf,--on one condition: that this book, which can be of no use to you,
you will give me if I get the better of him."
The freckled face puckered itself into a shrewd squint. "And if you
fail?"
"If I fail," Alwin returned promptly, "Rolf Erlingsson will pay for me.
He has told me that while he is free and I am bound, he is answerable
for what I do."
At this there was some laughter--when it was seen that the Wrestler was
not offended. "A quick wit answered that, Alwin of England," Rolf said
with a smile. "I will pay willingly, if you do not save us both, as I
expect."
Anxious to be done with it, Alwin fell upon the thrall with a fierceness
that terrified the fellow. His blade played about him like lightning;
one could scarce follow its motions. A flesh-wound in the hip; and the
poor churl, who had little real skill and less natural spirit, began to
blunder. A thrust in the arm that would have only redoubled Alwin's
zeal, finished him completely. With a roar of pain, he threw his weapon
from him, broke through the circle of angry men, and fled, cowering,
among the booths.
There were few words spoken as the cloak and the book were handed over.
The set of Thorgrim's mouth suggested that if he said anything, it would
be something which he realized might be better left unsaid. His men were
like hounds in leash. Rolf spoke a few smooth phrases, and hurried his
companion away.
The sense that he had been tricked to the level of a performing bear
came upon Alwin afresh. When they stood once more in the road, he looked
at the Wrestler accusingly and searchingly.
Rolf began to talk of the book. "Nothing have I seen which I think so
fine. I must admit that you men of England are more skilful than we of
the North in such matters. It is all well enough to scratch pictures on
a rock or carve them on a door; but what will you do when you wish to
move? Either you must leave them behind, or get a yoke of oxen. To have
them painted on kid-skin, I like much better. You are in great luck to
come into possession of such property."
Alwin forgot his resentful suspicions in his pleasure. "Let us sit down
somewhere and examine it," said he. "Yonder, where those trees stretch
over the fence and make the grass shady,--that will be a good place."
"Have it your own way," Rolf assented. To the shady spot they proceeded
accordingly.
Rolf stretched himself comfortably in the long grass and made a pillow
of his arms. Alwin squatted down, his back planted against the fence,
the book open on his knees.
The reading-matter was attractive enough, with its glittering characters
and rose-tinted pages, and every initial letter inches high and shrined
in azure-blue traceries. But the splendor of the pictures!--no barbaric
heart could resist them. What if the straight lines were crooked,--if
the draperies were wooden,--the hands and the feet ungainly? They had
been drawn with sparkles of gold and gleams of silver, in blue and
scarlet and violet, until nothing less than a stained-glass window
glowing in the sun could even suggest their radiance. Rolf warmed into
unusual heartiness.
"By the hilt of my sword, he was an accomplished man who was able to
make such pictures! Look at that horse,--it does not keep you guessing a
moment to tell what it is. And yonder man with the red flames leaping
about him,--I wish I knew why he was bound to that post!"
Alwin also was bitten with curiosity. "I tell you what I will do," he
offered. "You must not suppose that reading is as easy as swimming, or
handling a sword. My father did not have the accomplishment, and his
hair was gray. Neither would my mother have learned it, had it not been
that Alfred was her kinsman and she was proud of his scholarship. Nor
should I have known how, if she had not taught me. And I have forgotten
much. But this I will offer you: I will read the Saxon words to myself,
and then tell you in the Northern tongue what they mean."
He spread the book open on a spot of clean turf, stretched himself on
his stomach, gripped one leg around the other, planted his chin on his
clenched fists, and began.
It was slow work. He had forgotten a good deal; and every other word was
linked with distracting memories: his mother leaning from her embroidery
frame to follow the line with her bodkin; his mother, erect and stern,
bidding Brother Ambrose bear him away and flog him for his idleness; his
mother hearing his lesson with one arm around him and the other hand
holding the sweetmeat she would give him if he succeeded. He did not
notice that Rolf's eyes were gradually closing, and his bated breath
lengthening into long even sighs. He plodded on and on.
All at once a thunder of approaching hoof-beats reached him from up the
road. Nearer and nearer they came; and around the curve swept a party of
the King's guardsmen,--yellow hair and scarlet cloaks flying in the
wind, spurs jingling, weapons clattering, armor clashing. Alwin glanced
up and saw their leader,--and his interest in pale pictured saints
dropped dead.
"It must be King Olaf himself!" he murmured, staring.
A head taller than the other tall men, with shoulders a palm's-width
broader, the leader sat on his mighty black horse like a second Thor.
Light flashed from his steel tunic and gilded helmet. His bronzed face
had an eagle's beak for a nose, and eyes of the blue of ice or steel,
piercing as a two-edged sword. A white cross was painted on his shield
of gold.
As he swept past, he glanced toward the pair by the fence. Catching
sight of the sleeping Rolf, he checked his horse sharply, made a motion
bidding the others go on without him, and, wheeling, rode back, followed
only by a mounted thrall who was evidently his personal attendant. Alwin
leaped up and attempted to arouse his companion, but the guardsman saved
him the trouble. Leaning out of his saddle, he struck the Wrestler a
smart blow with the flat of his sword.
"What now, Rolf Erlingsson!" he demanded, in tones of thunder. "Because
I go on a five days' journey, must it happen that my men lie like
drunken swine along the roadside? For this you shall feel--"
Before his eyes were fairly open, Rolf was on his feet, tugging at his
sword. Luckily, before he thrust, he got a glimpse of his assailant.
"Leif, the son of Eric!" he cried, dropping his weapon. "Welcome! Hail
to you!"
The warrior's frown relaxed into a grim smile, as he yielded his hand to
his young follower's hearty grip.
"Is it possible that you are sober after all? What in the Fiend's name
do you here, asleep by the road in company with a thrall and a purple
cloak?"
Rolf relaxed into his customary drawl. "That is unjustly spoken, chief.
I have not been asleep. I have found a new and worthy enjoyment. I have
been listening while this Englishman read aloud from a Saxon book of
saints."
"A Saxon book of saints!" exclaimed the guardsman. "I would see it."
When its owner had handed it up, he looked it through hastily, yet
turning the leaves with reverence, and crossing himself whenever he
encountered a pictured cross. As he handed it back, he turned his eyes
on Alwin, blue and piercing as steel.
"It is likely that you are a high-born captive. That you can read is an
unusual accomplishment. It is not impossible that you might be useful to
me. Who is your master? Is it of any use to try to buy you from him?"
Rolf laughed. "Certainly you are well named 'the Lucky,' since you only
wish for what is already yours. This is the cook-boy whom Tyrker bought
to fill the place of Hord."
"So?" said Leif, in unconscious imitation of his old German
foster-father. He sat staring down thoughtfully at the boy,--until his
attendant took jealous alarm, and put his horse through a manoeuvre to
arouse him.
The guardsman came to himself with a start and a hasty gathering up of
his rein. "That is a good thing. We will speak further of it. Now, Olaf
Trygvasson is awaiting my report. Tell them I will be in camp to-morrow.
If I find drunken heads or dulled weapons--!" He looked his threat.
"I will heed your orders in this as in everything," Rolf answered, in
the courtier-phrase of the day. His chief gave him a short nod, struck
spurs to his horse, and galloped after his comrades.