Certainly Edmund had never received a greeting with more of formal dignity
than the young Dane did now, while Edmund could never have spoken what
followed with this grim directness which sent every word home like an arrow to
its mark.
"Lord of Ivarsdale, before I speak further I think it wise that we should make
plain our minds to each other. Some say that you are apt to be a hard man to
deal with because you bend to obedience only when the command is to your
liking. I want to know if this is true of you?"
Half in surprise, half in embarrassment, the Etheling colored high, and his
words were some time coming; but when at last they reached his lips, they were
as frank as Canute's own. "Lord King," he made answer, "that some truth is in
what you have heard cannot be gainsaid; for a king's thane I shall never be,
to crouch at a frown and caper according to his pleasure. What service I pay
to you, I pay as an odal-man to the State for which you stand. Yet I will say
this,--that I think men will find me less unruly than formerly, for, as I have
accepted you for my chief, so am I willing to render you obedience in any
manner soever you think right to demand it. This I am ready to swear to."
Canute's fist struck his chair-arm lightly. "Nothing more to my mind has
occurred for a long time, and I welcome it! Better will both of us succeed if
we declare openly that friendship between us must always be rather shallow.
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