“What of the outlanders?”

“All slain.  Seven Welshmen they were.”

Then I said plainly, remembering that the jarl would have known him, “Their leader was Griffin, who came with Hodulf at the first.  What brought him here, think you, Sigurd the jarl?”

But Sigurd looked round on the people, and scanned them for a long time, and at last he said, in a hush that fell when he began to speak, “Men who mind the old days, look at the man whom you have sought to kill, and say if there is that about him which will tell you why Hodulf’s men have set you on him thus.”

Then the white faces turned with one accord to Havelok, as he stood resting the great cornerstone on the battlement before him, and there grew a whisper that became a word and that was almost a shout from the many voices that answered.

“Gunnar!  Gunnar Kirkeban come again!”

Then was silence, and the jarl spoke to Havelok.

“Tell us your name, and whence you come.”

“Havelok Grimsson of Grimsby men call me,” he said.

And then men knew who he was indeed, for little by little the secret had been pieced together, if not told from the king’s place, in the years that had passed.  And at that there rose and grew a murmur and a cry.

“Havelok, son of Gunnar!  Havelok the king!”

Then said Sigurd in a great voice, “Who is for Hodulf of us all?  Let no man go hence who is for him.”

And I saw two or three men cut down then and there, and after that there was a roar of voices that called for Havelok to lead them.

“Come down, lord,” said Sigurd, unhelming and looking up.

So we went from the tower, and round Havelok the men crowded, kissing his hand and asking pardon for what they had wrought in error; and Sigurd dismounted and knelt before him, holding forth his sword hilt in token of homage, that his king might touch it.

“Only Havelok son of Gunnar dares call himself son of Grim also, and in that word all the tale is told.  But I have known you from the first by the token of the ring and by this likeness.  Yet I waited for you to speak, and for the time that should be best; and now that has come of itself, and I am glad.”

So said Sigurd, as we went from the tower to the hall, with the townsmen at our heels in a wondering crowd.  There were many among them who would show the wounds that Havelok had given them with pride hereafter, as tokens that they had known him well.

Then we stayed on the steps of the hall door, and the jarl called out man by man, and the war arrow was put in their hands with the names of those men who waited for the coming of Havelok, that all through the night the message that should bring him a mighty host on the morrow should go far and wide.

And the gathering word was, “Come, for the horn of the king is sounding.”

Then Sigurd said, “Speak to the people, my king, and all is done.”