“Our king does not seem to keep much state,” Ragnar said, looking round as I was looking, and we both laughed.

Then the door on the high place opened, and the king came in, soberly dressed, and with a smile on his face which seemed to me to have been made on purpose for this greeting, for he mostly looked sour enough.  Nor did it seem that his eyes had any pleasure in them.

“Welcome, kinsman,” he said, seeming hearty enough, however; “I had looked for you before this.  What news from our good town of Norwich?”

He held out his hand to Ragnar, who took it frankly, and his strong grip twisted the king’s set smile into a grin of pain for a moment.

“All was well there three weeks ago when I left there to go to London.  Now, I have ridden on to say that the Lady Goldberga is not far hence, so that her coming may be prepared for.”

Now, as the earl said this, the king’s smile went from his face, and black enough he looked for a moment.  The look passed quickly, and the smile came back, but it seemed hard to keep it up.

“Why, that is well,” he said; “so you fell in with her on the way.”

“I have attended her from London,” answered the earl, looking steadfastly at Alsi, “and it was as well that I did so, as it happened.”

“What has been amiss?” asked the king sharply, and trying to look troubled.  He let the smile go now altogether.

“Your henchman, Griffin the Welshman, had no guard with her that was fitting for our princess,” Ragnar said.  “He had but twenty men, and these not of the best.  It is in my mind also that I should have been told of this journey, for I am surely the right man to have guarded my queen who is to be.”

At that Alsi’s face went ashy pale, and I did not rightly know why at the time, but it seemed more in anger than aught else.  But he had to make some answer.

“We sent a messenger to you,” he said hastily; “I cannot tell why he did not reach you.”

“He must have come too late, and after I had heard of this from others; so I had already gone to meet the princess.  I am glad that I was sent for, and it may pass.  Well, it is lucky that I was in time, for we were attacked on the road, and but for my men there would have been trouble.”

Then Alsi broke into wrath, which was real enough.

“This passes all.  Where and by whom were you attacked? and why should any fall on the party?”

“Five miles on the other side of Ancaster town, where the Ermin Street runs among woods, we were fallen on, but who the men were I cannot say.  Why they should fall on us seems plain enough, seeing that the ransom of a princess is likely to be a great sum.”

“Was it a sharp fight?”

“It was not,” answered Ragnar, “for it seemed to me that the men looked only to find your Welsh thane Griffin and his men.  When they saw my Norfolk housecarls, they waited no longer, and we only rode down one or two of them.  But I have somewhat against this Griffin, for he helped me not at all.  Until this day he and his men had ridden fairly with us, but by the time this attack came they were half a mile behind us.”