“O fool, and doubly fool!” cries Griffin; “now have you outdone yourself.  Was it not plain to you that the man could be no thrall?  Even Ragnar looks mean beside him, and I hate Ragnar, so that I know well how goodly he is.”

Now Alsi grows uneasy, knowing that this had become plainer and plainer to him as the wedding went on.

“Why, what do you know of this knave of mine?” he asks.  “He was goodly enough for the sake of my oath, and the Witan will have none of him.  That is all I care for.”

“What do I know of him?  Just this—­that you have married the queen of the East Angles to Havelok, son of Gunnar Kirkeban of Denmark, for whom men wait over there even now.  The Witan not have him?  I tell you that every man in the land will follow him and Goldberga if they so much as lift their finger.  Done are the days of your kingship, and that by your own deed.”

Alsi grows white at this and trembles, for he minds the wondrous ring and the names of the Asir, but he asks for more certainty.

Then Griffin tells him that he was with Hodulf, and knew all the secret of the making away with the boy, and how that came to naught.  Then he says that Hodulf had heard from certain Vikings that they had fallen on Grim’s ship, and that in the grappling of the vessel the boy and a lady had been drowned.  It is quite likely that they, or some of them, thought so in truth, seeing how that happened.  After that Hodulf had made inquiry, and was told that there were none but the children of Grim with him, and so was content.  So my father’s wisdom was justified.

“Now I learned his name the other day; and I have a ship waiting to take me at once to Hodulf, that I may warn him.  I have ridden back from Grimsby even now to say that, given a chance, say on some lonely ride, that might well have been contrived, I would take Goldberga with me beyond the sea.  I thought more of that than of Hodulf, to say the truth.”

Now Alsi breaks down altogether, and prays Griffin to help him out of this.

“Follow the party and take her.  They are few and unarmed, and it will be easy, for men think that there is a plot to carry her off, and this will not surprise any.  Go to the sheriff and tell him that it has happened, and he will hang the men on sight when you have taken them.  Then get to sea with the girl, and to Hodulf, and both he and I will reward you.”

“Thanks,” says Griffin, with a sneer; “I have my own men.  Yours might have orders that I am the one to be hanged.  It would be worth your while now to make a friend of your kitchen knave.  You are not to be trusted.”

So these two wrangle for a while bitterly, for Alsi is not overlord of Griffin in any way.  And the end is that the thane rides towards Grimsby first of all, with twenty men at his heels, knowing more than we thought.  But he hears naught of us, and presently meets Arngeir on his way thence to see us.  Him he knows, for already he has had dealings with him in the hiring of the ship.  So he learns from him that certainly no such party as he seeks is on the road, and therefore rides off to the Ermin Street to stay us from going south.