.. "Go on, go on!"
"I also say go on, in the Troll's name!" the Jotun roared. "Go on and tell us
what Edric the Gainer did which they else could not have done."
"I said not that he did what they could not, chief. He did what they would
not, as the thrall who pulls off our boots muddies his hands that we may keep
ours clean. And a strange wonder is the way in which the English king trusts
him even after this treason has been committed! The Gainer fled, with all his
men, at the moment when most King Edmund depended upon his support; and in
this way left for Danish feet a hewn path where a forest of battle-trees had
stood."
Rothgar took no part in the stream of questions and comments that again
drowned the voice of the messenger, until suddenly he launched an oath that
out-thundered them all: "May Thor feel otherwise than I do, for I vow that
were I in his place, I would raise Danish warriors in wool-chests! Is that the
valor of the descendants of Odin, that they go not into battle until a
foul-hearted traitor has swept the way clean of danger? Is the heart of the
King become wax within him? Or is it that cold-blooded fox at his side that is
draining the manhood out of him? I would give much if I had been there!"
Casting himself down upon the bearskin, he lay there breathing hard and
tearing the fur out in great handfuls.
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