"If you are the friend of whom Radbard has told me, I think that I am fortunate in having come to him."
"I am his brother, lord earl," answered Havelok, "and I am at your service."
Ragnar looked from one of us to the other, and then smiled.
"A brother Dane and a brother in arms, truly," he said. "Well, that is all that I need ask, except your name, as I am to be another brother of the same sort."
Then Havelok looked at me, and I nodded. I knew what he meant; but it was not right that the earl should not know who he was.
"Men call me Curan here, lord earl, and that I must be to you hereafter. But I am Havelok of Grimsby, son of Grim."
In a moment I saw that the earl knew more of that name than I had deemed possible; and then I minded Mord, the wry-necked, who was the chamberlain now. But Ragnar said nothing beyond that he would remember the request, and that he was well seconded. And then we went out into the grey morning, and without recrossing the bridge, away to the level meadows on the south of the river, far from any roadway.
"There is not an island in the stream," said Ragnar, "or I should have wanted the old northern holmgang battle. I doubt if we could even get these Welshmen to peg out the lists."
"That we must see to," I said. "We will have all things fair in some way."
Half a mile from the town we came to what they call a carr -- a woody rise in the level marsh -- and on the skirts of this two men waited us. They were the seconds of Griffin, Welsh or half Welsh both of them by their looks, and both were well armed. Their greeting was courteous enough, and they led us by a little track into the heart of the thickets, and there was a wide and level clearing, most fit for a fight, in which waited Griffin himself.
Now I had never taken any part in a fight before, and I did not rightly know what I had to do to begin with. However, one of the other side seemed to be well up in the matter, and at once he came to me and Havelok and took us aside.
"Here is a little trouble," he said: "our men have said nothing of what weapons they will use."
"I take it," said Havelok at once, "that they meant to use those which were most handy to them, therefore."
The Welshman stared, and answered rather stiffly, "This is not a matter of chance medley, young sir, but an ordered affair. But doubtless this is the first time you have been in this case, and do not know the rules. Let me tell you, therefore, that your earl, being the challenged man, has choice of weapons.
"Why, then," answered Havelok, "it seems to me that if we say as I have already said, it is fair on our part. For it is certain that the earl will want to use the axe, and your man is about half his weight, so that would be uneven."
"As the challenged man, the earl is ent.i.tled to any advantage in weapons."
"He needs none. Let us fight fairly or not at all. The earl takes the axe. -- What say you, Radbard? Griffin takes what he likes."
"You keep to the axe after all, and yet say that it gives an advantage."
"Axe against axe it does, but if your man chooses to take a twenty-foot spear and keep out of its way, we do not object. We give him his own choice."
Then the other second said frankly, "This is generous, Cadwal. No more need be said. But this young thane has not yet asked his earl whether it will suit him."
"Faith, no," said Havelok, laughing; "I was thinking what I should like myself, and nothing at all of the earl."
So I went across to Ragnar, who was waiting patiently at one end of the clearing, while Griffin was pacing with uneven steps backward and forward at the other, and I told him what the question was.
"I thought it would be a matter of swords," he said, "but I am Dane enough to like the axe best. Settle it as you will. Of course he knows naught of axe play, so that you are right in not pressing it on him. He is a light man, and active, and maybe will be glad not even to try sword to sword; for look at the sort of bodkin he is wearing."
The earl and we had the northern long sword, of course; but when I looked I saw that the Welsh had short, straight, and heavy weapons of about half the length of ours, and so even sword to sword seemed hard on the lighter man; wherein I was wrong, as I had yet to learn.
I went back, therefore, and told the others.
"The earl takes the axe, and the thane has his choice, as we have said."
"We have to thank you," said the other second, while Cadwal only laughed a short laugh, and bade us choose the ground with them.
There was no difficulty about that, for the light was clear and bright, and though the sun was up, the trees bid any bright rays that might be in the eyes of the fighters. However, we set them across the light, so that all there was might be even; and then we agreed that if one was forced back to the edge of the clearing he was to be held beaten, as if we had been on an island. It was nearly as good, for the sh.o.r.e of trees and brushwood was very plain and sharp.
Now Ragnar unslung his round shield from his shoulders, and took his axe from me, for I had carried it for him, and his face was quiet and steady, as the face of one should be who has a deed to do that must be seen through to the end. But Griffin and his men talked quickly in their own tongue, and I had to tell them that we understood it well enough. Then they looked at each other, and were silent suddenly. I wondered what they, were about to say, for it seemed that my warning came just in time for them.
Griffin took a shield from the thane they called Cadwal, and it was square -- a shape that I had not seen before in use, though Witlaf had one like it on the wall at Stallingborough. He said that it had been won from a chief by his forefathers when the English first came into the land, and that it was the old Roman shape. It seemed unhandy to me, but I had no time to think of it for a moment, for now Cadwal had a last question.
"Is this fight to be to the death?"
"No," I answered; "else were the rule we made about the boundary of no use."
Then Griffin cried in a sort of choked voice, "It shall be to the death."
But I said nothing, and the other second, with Cadwal, shook his head.
Ragnar made no sign, but Cadwal said to Havelok, "You were foremost in the matter just now. What say you?"
"Rules are rules, and what my comrade says is right. If the first blow slays, we cannot help it, but there shall be no second wound. The man who is first struck is defeated."
"I will not have it so," said Griffin.
"Well, then, thane, after you have wounded the earl you will have to reckon with me, if you must slay someone."
Griffin looked at the towering form of my brother and made no answer, and the other second told him that it was right. There was naught but an angry word or two to be atoned for. So there was an end, and Ragnar went on guard. Griffin made ready also, and at once it was plain that here was no uneven match after all.
Both of them wore ring mail of the best. We had set the two six paces apart, and they must step forward to get within striking distance. At once Griffin seemed to grow smaller, for he crouched down as a cat that is going to spring, and raised his shield before him, so that from where I stood behind Ragnar I could only see his black glittering eyes and round helm above its edge. And his right arm was drawn back, so that only the point of his heavy leaf-bladed sword was to be seen glancing from the right edge steadily. And now his eyes were steady as the sword point, which was no brighter than they. If once he got inside the sweep of the great axe it would be bad for Ragnar.
One step forward went the earl, shield up and axe balanced, but Griffin never moved. Then Ragnar leapt forward and struck out, but I could see that it was a feint, and he recovered at once. Griffin"s shield had gone up in a moment above his head, and in a moment it was back in its place, and over it his eyes glared as before, unwavering. And then, like a wildcat, he sprang at Ragnar, making no sweeping blow with his sword, but thrusting with straight arm, so that the whole weight of his flying body was behind the point. Ragnar struck out, but the square shield was overhead to stay the blow, and full on the round Danish buckler the point of the short sword rang, for the earl was ready to meet it.
In a moment the Welshman was back in his crouching guard, leaving a great ragged hole in the shield whence he had wrenched his weapon point in a way that told of a wrist turn that had been long practised. Ragnar had needed no leech, had his quick eye not saved him from that thrust.
Then for a breathing s.p.a.ce the two watched each other, while we held our breath, motionless. And then Griffin slowly began to circle round his foe, still crouching.
Then, like a thunderbolt, Ragnar"s axe swept down on the thane, and neither shield nor helm would have been of avail had that blow gone home. Back leapt Griffin, and the axe sh.o.r.e the edge only of his shield; and then, shield aloft and point foremost, he flew on the earl before the axe had recovered from its swing, and I surely thought that the end had come, for the earl"s shield was lowered, and his face was unguarded.
But that was what he looked for. Up and forward flew the round shield, catching the thane"s straightened arm along its whole length, and then, as sword and arm were dashed upwards, smiting him fairly in the face; and, like a stone, the Welshman was hurled from it, and fell backward in a heap on the gra.s.s three paces away. It seemed to me that he was off his feet in his spring as the shield smote him.
There he lay, and Havelok strode forward and stood between the two, with his face to Griffin, for Ragnar had dropped his axe to rest when his foe fell.
"No blood drawn," said my brother, "but no more fighting can there be. The man"s arm is out."
And so it was, for the mighty heave that turned the thrust had ended Griffin"s fighting for a long day. But he did not think so.
The sweat was standing on his face in great beads from the pain, but he got up and shifted his sword to his left hand.
"It is to the death," he cried; "I can fight as well with the left. Stand aside."