THE KINGS’ MOTE.
“Well, wife,” said Swein at last, “I am trapped, seemingly. It is stand
and deliver, is it? What, there is nothing so dreadful after all, turn
and turn it over as one may. But that is yet to be judged: I suppose I
must put my case, and tell my story.
“How we set off I need not tell. We came to Carnforth, and there we met
most of our neighbours from the country-side. There was Arnold and his
people from Arnoldsby in Dunnerdale: there were Raven and Ulfar from this
side of Furness: Ulf and Sigurd the priest from up the Kent; and Arni
was there on the spot, for he lives hard by, and it was his folk looked
after the ships of us that came by water; and other friends from over
the sands. We took counsel together, and agreed that being summoned to
this meeting, be it peace or war, we should go: but that we should keep
together and make one band, for it is ill dealing with folk that are
neither kith nor kin.
“Thou knowest, Unna, that we reckoned this bit of land was no man’s land
until we came and took it. Northward beyond the fells the Welsh hold
themselves under the rule of Donal the Strathclyde king: but never did
I hear of his coming into these parts or having a power on Morecambe
coasts. Across there in Cartmel they say they belong to the minster
priests in York, and be no king’s men at all: and beyond that again, if
Ragnar Lodbrog’s sons did ever take the land, neither Angle nor Dane in
Kentdale or Lunesdale has paid shot to York for many a year: and this
Sigurd upholds, and he is a man that listens to old folk’s tales; and a
wise man, if it be wise nowadays to redden the altar as men used, and to
build a holy place for Thor, as he has done, up the Kent, at the spot we
call Sigurd’s hörg.
“‘Fifty years ago, after Halfdan sacked Carlisle and laid all these parts
under him, and began to settle them from the eastward, and had his king’s
seat near Ulfar’s town, then, I grant you,’ says Sigurd, ‘this would be
in the Danelaw: but now that king Halfdan is dead and all the kings that
came after him down to Guthred, and there is no law in York, but only
these rascally bearsarks of Danes sacking and slaying up and down, why,
look you, we owe them nothing, and need but keep together,’ says he, ‘to
be our own men like the Icelanders.’ And this talk we held to be but fair
and good, and took hands all round upon it.
“So we got horses at the bank where the old road meets the sands, and
came to a burg called Lancaster where we had to meet the main part of the
host from the north. The burgers gave us what we wanted with little ado:
a handful of chapmen and cowpers who trade with travellers on the great
highway. But I thought they grinned a little when we talked of going
against the Saxons.
“Well, in a day or so there is a great trumpetting and booming, and up
comes Constantine the Scots’ king, and his brother Donal of Strathclyde,
and among them Ketel and others of our own men from Cumberland, and some
from Galloway: and it was hail fellow with many an old friend.
“‘It seems we are but short-handed,’ said Sigurd: ‘or is the Saxon king
of less account than we reckon for?’
“With that they laughed outright, and the cat came out of the bag, tail
and all: for they told us flatly that there was no fighting to be thought
of: but only a great meeting of all the people in Britain under their
kings and earls.
“‘And pray what king do you reckon us to be under?’ said I to Ketel.
“‘Well,’ said Ketel, ‘Donal flatters himself because I have taken up my
abode in his borders, that I am his man. I remember well, when I met him
first, what a wagging of beards there was. Some were for hunting us out,
at which the old whiteheads turned pale, though I made as if I understood
none of their _dim saisnaeg_. By and by the whitest beard of all made a
terrible long-winded speech, setting forth how, if they turned us out,
there would be swarms more of us revenging ourselves upon them: and how
there was land enough and to spare on the holms and flats by Dundraw: and
how, when we Northmen were let alone we were decent merchants, buying
goods and servants. He said we always had plenty of money and brought
trade to the country-side: and he wound up in a flowery way, I could
understand him well:—Look you, says he, waving his old skinny arms about.
These white strangers (for they call us white, and the Danes black, and
right they are to my thinking) these strangers, says he, will be a soft
bolster to our heads. When hard knocks come, they will get them, and we
shall feel the less.—So they blethered and clattered like crows, and in
the end let us be: and here we are!’
“‘Well, Ketel Bolster,’ said I—eh, how they did laugh—‘if Donal suits
thee for lord and master, he suits not me.’ At which Ketel would at me,
and I would have beaten him well, only they stood in and stopped us.
“Next day we trotted along the great high road. It’s a strange thing,
Unna, that folk ever took the trouble to heap hard stones together for
nought but to walk on. But there it goes up hill and down dale, through
bog and brink; and everly built with cobbles, for all the world like a
great long hearth spot, and as straight as an arrow-flight from day’s
end to day’s end. They told me it was folk from Romeburg that built it:
though what they could have done it for, I know nought: unless it were
a priest’s trick to mark out the Church gate. Anyhow it was hard riding
clitter-clatter on the cobbles all day long: I had rather have galloped
over the green grass: but keep together was the word, for there were but
few of us, and with such a pack of Welsh and Scots before and behind, one
never knows what may happen.
“The next night we harboured at a spot they called Ribblechester, and the
next at Manchester, which is a pretty place, and one would have thought
a strong work enough to hold against any comers: but the Saxons took it
last summer from those lubberly Danes. I fell in talk with the goodman
where they lodged us, and it seemed that not only they in Manchester,
but all the Danelaw, had got a thorough fright of the Marchmen and the
Saxons, and they were hastening to this meeting like thralls to supper,
each afraid to be last man in.
“‘And who are _they_?’ say I.
“‘Why,’ says he, ‘everybody of account, but in especial the new kings of
York.’
“‘New kings?’ say I.
“‘Aye,’ says he: ‘Sigtrygg and Ragnwald Ivarson.’
“‘What!’ say I; ‘Sigtrygg I knew was bearsarking up and down in those
parts,—no king, and not at York: but Ragnwald, the rascal, he was at
Waterford but a while since: what is he doing here?’
“‘Why,’ says he, ‘where in the round world is thy den, man or mountain
bear?’
“‘Softly,’ say I: ‘Swain is my name and Bear’s son is my breeding.
Swain’s fist or bear’s paw, which wilt have?’
“‘No offence, guest,’ says he: ‘But I thought every one knew that
Ragnwald was kicked out of Waterford—’
“‘Well done!’ say I.
“‘And killed the old king’s earls but a few months since, and marched
into York.’
“‘Marched into hell!’ said I.
“‘No such thing: the tale was that he died three years ago; but there he
is, and thou wilt see him at the king’s mote, for he will be there to
make his peace with Eadward and be confirmed in his kingdom.’
“‘He shall see me,’ said I, ‘and get more peace than he wots of.’
“For Unna, never a day passes but I think of that fight off Man, and our
good Bardi’s ship going down with the Dane’s iron beak through her ribs.
“Well, this last day we rode over fells they called Peak to Bakewell,
and if it was forecast at Manchester, here was sooth. Hardly were we
within sight of the place, but a flock of horsemen comes spurring out
to meet us, and after some parley makes a lane for us to pass through,
one by one, like sheep counted into a fold: and of each a jack-in-office
asks name and nation and so forth before he may go his ways. And when we
come among the houses, which were as thick as trees in a wood, we must
halt till we are told off to our lodgings: and there we must bide till
it please my lord the Saxon king to see us. Not but that we were well
bestowed for bed and board: and to see the sights was something. Houses,
I say, for ever, and nigh upon all of them new built or even in the
building. Strangers from all parts of the land; why, from all the round
world it seemed. And all day and every day market in the lanes and open
places, and wares to be bought the like of which I never saw, not even on
Dublin strand when the fleet comes in. What little I had of silver in my
bag soon went: but it passed the time to chaffer and turn the wares over.
I got a bit of a scarf: the cowper said it came from Micklegarth and
maybe beyond: even he was all the way from Londonburg. I paid a pretty
penny for it, and yet thought I was making a good bargain. Mayhappen you
will shake your head: but don it first. There are two or three trifles
beside in a kist the lads will bring up and we can unpack to-morrow.
“All this while no Ragnwald was to be seen, and I began to reckon nought
of the Manchester man’s tale. At last comes jack-in-office, and bids us
to the Saxon king: and in we go, over a bridge and through a gate in the
stout oaken wall new cut: and there is a yard in the midst, full of his
housecarles, and one could not but see with half an eye that they were
big fellows and their weapons were of the best.
“I need not tell thee, Unna, what a king’s house is like: but this burg
was a sight to see, for its bigness without, and within for its hangings
and carvings and gold and silver: yet most of all for the king we have
heard tell about sitting on his high seat, all gold, with his high crown
and gold staff: and his earls and priests in gold cloaks and horned caps,
holding their crooks like so many warlocks: and indeed who knows what
spell they were casting over us? Anyhow there were Constantine and Donal
down on their knees, like men bewitched, and their hands in the king’s
hands, saying after one that stood by—‘I Constantine, and I Donal, take
thee Eadward to be my father and lord, and father and lord of all my
folk.’ And then came Ealdred Eadulfson of Bamborough, with his Angles,
and did likewise. And then came Sigtrygg Ivarson and a scrow of Danes,
and did likewise, only that they made oath on the ring, for they are not
Christian men like those that went before. And then came Ragnwald.
“Unna, lass, I was mad wrath when I saw him, and I could have run upon
him there: only Sigurd held me by one arm and Ketel by the other, and
said ‘Peace, man, at a mote!’ And then stood one forth in the silence,
and spoke, ‘Forasmuch as you have commended you to our king Eadward, king
of Angles and Saxons, and overlord of Cornwall and of Gwynedd and of all
the West Welsh, to be his men, each and all of you—’
“‘Nay, not I,’ cried a voice: they said it was mine, though I knew not I
spoke, for I was that angry. But you may guess if there was a haybay and
swords drawn. They plucked me by the sleeve and shouted in my ears ‘Peace
man, peace!’ I tried to get at my sword, and looked for Ragnwald first.
But the Saxon king sat still on his high seat, and waved his wand, and
men were quiet again and I standing thrust out in the midst.
“‘Come hither, good friend,’ he said, speaking very fair and slowly, so
that I could understand him well, for the Saxon tongue is hard to hear at
first: ‘Come nigh and tell me what ails thee.’
“And I marched up to the high seat, and said I, ‘Nothing but this, king;
that I have sworn nought to thee: and I see my enemy standing there.’
“‘Softly, good man,’ says the king; ‘this is a hallowed mote: if all foes
here were to fight, we should eat each other up.’ And he smiled, Unn, and
I could not but laugh too, for I thought of yon Irish cats thy mother
used to tell of.
“‘And who is thy foe?’ says Eadward.
“‘Ragnwald Ivarson.’
“With that, out steps Ragnwald as proud as a peacock.
“‘I never set eyes on the carle,’ says he.
“‘But I know thee, Ragnwald,’ said I; ‘and well I mind the day when thy
ship ran Bardi’s down, ten years ago, off Man.’
“‘And is that all?’ said he.
“‘Come,’ said Eadward: ‘this day we let bygones be bygones. Have I
nothing against Ragnwald, thinkst thou? and were Bardi Ottarson’s folk
sackless of scathe to me and mine? Who art thou, good fellow, and whence?’
“So I told him my name and where I lived: and the upshot of it was that
Eadward says, ‘Well then, if I let thee dwell there in peace, wilt thou
leave thy neighbours in peace?’
“What could one say but Aye?
“Now, all this while was the high priest muttering and making signs at
me, Sigurd says: and doubtless I was bewitched. For I looked in the
king’s eyes and clean forgot about Ragnwald, and all the mind I had to
live and die my own man, and no king’s man. The people in the hall seemed
to be a dream, and there were I and Eadward only. He reached out his hand
to me, and my hand was in his, and the ring fell from his arm upon mine.
‘Kneel, man, kneel!’ cried the bystanders: but Eadward smiled, like one
who has mated you at chess.
“‘Take hands on a bargain,’ he said: ‘that is the Northman’s way, is it
not? Nay, keep the ring, friend Swein.’
“And there it is,” said Swein: casting a gold armlet on the turf. “The
bull’s snout-ring, I call it: the thrall’s collar.”
“And is that the tale?” said Unna, stooping to pick it up. “Oh, man!
serve the best and spurn the worst. I am weary of this wandering and
warring; I would fain end our days as this day ends.”
And the moon cast a great stream of light along the Leven.
“I thought there could be no welcome for a nithing like me.”
“Welcome?” she said. “Thrice welcome for the best tale of these ten
years: a thousand welcomes if the peace but hold good.”
“Maybe through the winter,” said Swein, as they rose to leave the howe.
Then, as their feet brushed through the beaded dew, “I doubt if the oath
will bind us long,” said he. “Methought when he took mine, that I was
holding a dead man’s hand.”