"While they are talking about the terms, there is nothing to look at; tell us
how the Gainer pulled the net around King Edmund," the rough voices demanded.
And again she was obliged to bend her wits to their task.
But it came at last, the end that was the beginning. Suddenly a hand reached
around her neck and shut over her mouth. "Stop! They are taking their places.
Look!"
He need not have added that last word; from that moment for many thousands of
eyes there was but one object in the world,--the strip of rock-ribbed earth
and the two figures that faced each other upon it.
As they fixed their gaze on their champion, the English yelled exultantly, and
the Danes bravely rivalled them in noise; but it was more a cry of rage and
grief than a cheer. Now that the royal duellists stood forth together,
stripped of cloak and steel shirt, and wearing no other helm than the golden
circlet of their rank, their inequality was even more glaring than alarmed
fancy had painted it. The crown of Canute's shining locks reached only to the
chin of the mighty Ironside; and the width of nearly two palms was needed on
his shoulders.
Borgar turned, with tears in his bleared eyes, and threw himself face-downward
on the earth; and the fellow next to him, with the mien of a madman, thrust
his mantle between his teeth and bit and tore at it like a dog.
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