.. "We speak as we have a right." Snarling more and
more openly, they surged forward, closing around the dais in a fiery mass.
In the cushions of the balcony, Leonorine hid her face with a cry; "They will
murder him!" And Elfgiva rose slowly from her chair, her eyes dark with horror
yet unable to tear themselves from the scene below. The mail-clad King no
longer looked to her like a man of flesh and blood but like a figure of iron
and steel, that the firelight was wrapping in unendurable brightness. His
sword was no more brilliantly hard than his face, and his eyes were glittering
points. The ring of steel was in his voice as he answered:
"You speak as you have a right,--but you speak as men who have swines'
memories. Was it your support or your courage that won me the English crown?
It may be that if I had waited until pyre and fire you would have done so, but
it happened that before that time the English Witan gave it to me as a gift,
in return for my pledge to rule them justly. My meaning in this judgment, and
the others you dislike, is that I am going to keep that pledge. You are my
men, and as my men you have supported me, and as my men I have rewarded you,--
no chief was ever more open-handed with property toward his following,--but if
you think that on that account I will endure from you trouble and lawlessness,
you would better part from me and get into your boats and go back to my other
kingdom.
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