In the pause, the page bent toward his master, his face alight with a sudden
fierce triumph. "Lord," he whispered, "you can never get out! You are caught
as though they had you in a trap!"
Astounded, Sebert drew back to stare at him. "Fridtjof! It is not possible
that you are unfaithful to me!"
The boy's only answer was to drop down upon the step and bury his face in his
hands. And nov: the messenger had recovered his wind and his place.
"Since the time of Alfred," he went on, "my chief and his kin have been kept
out of the property by your stock and you; yet because he does not wish to
look mean, he offers you to go out in safety with all of your housefolk, both
men and women, and as much property as you can walk under,--if you go quietly
and in peace." This time his inflection showed that he had finished. He turned
his eyes from the hole and fastened them on the Lord of Ivarsdale, in the
confidence of invincible power.
The room was so still that when a gust came in around the ill-fitting windows,
the flare of the torch-flames sounded loud as the hiss of serpents.
The Etheling's voice was very deep and quiet. "If we go in peace," he repeated
slowly. "And if we do not?"
The Dane shrugged his burly shoulders. "There are no terms for that. You will
find it necessary to take what comes."
Again there was silence.
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