"--"A hundred tongues had done no harm if Edmund--" The
voices sank into a snarling undertone: "Ay, there it is!"--" Ethelred's
blood!"--"It is no more to be counted on than is water--" "What could have
moved him to it?"
Morcard's throat emitted a sound that might have been a chuckle or might have
been a growl. "I will tell you plainly for why; it is his dauntlessness. He is
going to pit his green wit against Edric's, that has made two kings as wax
between his fingers! And he has begun by letting the wolf into the fold."
It appeared that the Etheling had recovered from his surprise, for now he said
steadily, "I will not believe it. Until their oaths have been spoken and their
hands have clasped and my own eyes have witnessed it, I will not believe it of
him."
Motioning them from his path, he was starting forward a second time, when the
old cniht laid a hand lightly upon his shoulder.
"Hear me, Lord Sebert! If then,--to weigh all perils like a soldier,--if then,
you do witness it with your own eyes?"
The blue gave out a flash of smitten steel.
Morcard answered as to words: "You will be one against many, lord."
"You cannot mean that the Witan will comply with him!" the Etheling cried.
"How is it possible that they should do otherwise? The odal-born men could not
prevent it when Ethelred took Alfric back. And to-night, few but thanes have
resorted thither--men whom the Redeless took from ploughing his fields to gild
with nobility.
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