For I tell you now, openly and without deceit, that here henceforth
there is to be but one rule for Angle and Dane alike; and I shall be as much
their King as yours; and they shall share equally in my justice. You may like
it or not, but that is what will take place."
How they liked it was suggested by a bursting roar, and the scuffling of many
feet as the English leaped forward to protect their new King and the Danes
whirled to meet them, but the women in the gallery did not wait to see the
outcome. In a frenzy of terror, Elfgiva dragged up the kneeling maids and
herded them through the door.
"Go,--before they get into the ante-room!" she gasped. "Do you not see that he
is no longer human? We should be pleading with iron. Go! Before they tear down
the walls!"
Chapter XXVII
Pixie-led
To a good friend's
The paths lie direct,
Though he be far away.
Ha'vama'l.
So Sebert of Ivarsdale went to his tower unhindered; and the rest of the
winter nights, while the winds of the Wolf Month howled about the palisades,
he listened undisturbed to his harper; and the rest of the winter days he trod
in peace the homely routine of his lordship,--in peace and in absent-eyed
silence.
"The old ways are clean fallen out of England, and it becomes a man to
consider diligently how he will order his future," he told Hildelitha and the
old cniht when they inquired the reason for his abstraction.
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