Now, in the hush was a little talk and laughter among those who were nearest the king, and then I saw the queen smile and speak to Elfrida, who blushed and looked well pleased, and then rose and came daintily round the end of the king’s board.  There a thane who sat at the table at the foot of the steps rose and handed her down them to where the servant waited.  Ina had asked her to hand him the cup after the old fashion, she being the lady of the chief house in Glastonbury next his own.  There she took the cup from the man’s hand, and held it while he filled it heedfully.  A little murmur that was all of praise went round the hall, and her colour rose again as she heard it, for it was not to be mistaken, and from the lower tables the voices were outspoken enough in all honesty.

Then she went up the steps holding the cup, and the king smiled on her as she came, and so she stood on the dais before the table and held out the wine, and begged the king to drink the “Bragi bowl” from her hands in her father’s town.

The king bowed and smiled again, and rose up to take the cup from this fair bearer, and at that moment there was a sort of scuffle, unseemly enough, at the lower end of the hall near the door, and gruff voices seemed to be hushed as Ina glanced up with the cup yet untouched by his hand.

Then a man leapt from the hands of some who tried to hold him back, and he strode across the hall past the fire and to the very foot of the high place—­as rough and unkempt a figure as ever begged for food at a king’s table, unarmed, and a thrall to all seeming.  And as he came he cried: 

“Justice, Ina the king!—­Justice!”

At that I and my men, who had sprung to our feet to hinder him, sat down again, for a suppliant none of us might hinder at any time.  I did not remember seeing this man come in, but that was the business of the hall steward, unless there was trouble that needed the house-carles.

Ina frowned at this unmannerly coming at first, but his brow cleared as he heard the cry of the man.  He signed to Elfrida to wait for a moment, and looked kindly at the thrall before him.

“Justice, Lord,” the man said again.

“Justice you shall have, my poor churl,” answered the king gently.  “But this is not quite the time to go into the matter.  Sit you down again, and presently you shall tell all to Owen the marshal, and thus it will come to me, and you shall see me again in the morning.”

“Nay, but I will have justice here and now,” the man said doggedly, and yet with some sort of appeal in his voice.

“Is it so pressing?  Well, then, speak on.  Maybe the vow that I shall make will be to see you righted.”

And so the king sat down again, and the lady Elfrida waited, resting one hand on the table at the end of the dais farthest from me, and holding the golden cup yet in the other.

“What shall be done to the man who slays my brother?” the thrall cried.