"Now for it! While they are waiting for Edmund to land; before there is
anything to watch," the Scar-Cheek commanded. "Tell what you told Canute with
regard to the English King which made him so reckless as to agree to this
bargain."
There was nothing for it but obedience. A flower in a thicket of thistles, a
lamb in the midst of wolves, she sat and watched the tipping of the scales
that had her fortune among their weights.
A shout from the surging mass of English opposite told when the Ironside had
landed; and as soon as it was seen whom he had chosen to accompany him as his
witness, a buzz of excitement passed along the Danish line.
"Edric! by all the gods, Edric Jarl!"
"Now, for the first time, I believe that victory will follow Canute's sword!"
Brass Borgar ejaculated. "Since nothing less than the madness betokening death
could cause Edmund to continue his trust in the Gainer, it is seen from this
that he is a death-fated man."
From the others there came a volley of epithets, so foul a flight that the
girl's knuckles whitened in her struggles to keep her hands down from her
ears. A picture rose in her mind of Sebert's dream-lady, passing her waiting-
time among soft-voiced maids, and her heart turned sick within her.
It was little time that the pack gave her for revery, however; now it was
Edric Jarl of whom they wanted to hear.
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