The Thrall of Leif the Lucky

O >> Ottilie A. Liljencrantz >> The Thrall of Leif the Lucky

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19

Leif drew himself up haughtily and also very quietly. "It is unadvisable
for you to speak such words to me," he said. "I also am a Christian."

Flint had struck steel. Eric leaped to his feet in a blaze.

"Say that again!"

Thorwald and a dozen of the guests shook their heads frantically at him,
but Leif repeated the declaration.

Crash! Down went Eric's goblet, to shiver into a thousand pieces on the
table edge. With a furious curse he flung himself back in his chair, and
leaned there, panting and glaring.

A hum of voices arose around the room. Men called out soothing words to
the Red One and expostulations to Leif. Others felt furtively for their
weapons. Some of the women turned pale and clung to each other. Helga
arose, her beautiful face shining like a star, and left their ranks and
came over and seated herself on Leif's foot-stool, though the voice of
Thorhild rose high and shrill in scolding. Leif's men straightened
themselves alertly, and fixed upon their master the eyes of expectant
dogs. Thorwald hurried to his brother, and laid hands on his shoulders,
and endeavored to argue with him.

Leif put him aside, as he arose and faced his father. Through the tumult
his voice sounded quiet and strong, the quiet of perfect self-command,
the strength of a fearless heart and an iron will.

"It is a great grief to me that you dislike what I have done; yet now I
think it best to tell you the whole truth, that you cannot feel that I
have acted underhanded in anything."

Eric gave vent to a sound between a growl and a snarl, and flounced in
his chair. Thorhild made her son a gesture of entreaty. But Lei/,
looking back into the frowning faces, calmly continued:

"Olaf Trygvasson converted me to Christianity two winters ago, and I
tell you truly that I was never so well helped as I have been since
then. And not only am I a Christian, but every man who calls himself
mine is also one, and will let blood-eagles be cut in his back rather
than change his faith."

No sound came from Eric; but his mouth was half open, as though his rage
were choking him, and his face was purple and twitched with passion. He
had picked up the ugly little bronze battle-axe that leaned against his
chair, and was hefting it and fingering it and shifting it from hand to
hand. Gradually the eyes of all the company centred upon the gleaming
wedge, following it up and down and back and forth, expecting, dreading.

"If he does not wish to go so far as to slay his own son, he has yet an
easy mark in me," Alwin murmured, his eyes following the motions like
snake-charmed birds. "If he raises it again like that, I think I shall
dodge." Out of the corners of his eyes, he could see many movements of
uneasiness among Leif's men.

Only Leif went on quietly: "You have always known that your gods must
die, so it should not surprise you to be told now that they are dead;
and it should gladden your hearts to know that One has been found who is
both ever-living and willing to help. Therefore King Olaf has sent me to
lay before you, that if you will accept this faith as the men of
Trondhjem have done--"

Helga sprang aside with a shriek of warning. Eric's arm had shot up and
back. With a bellow of rage, he leaped to his feet and hurled the axe at
his son's head. Simultaneously came an oath from Valbrand and a roar
from the crew; then a thundering blow, as the axe, missing the Lucky One
by ever so small a space, buried itself deep in the wall behind him.

Instantly every man of the crew was on his feet, and there was clashing
of weapons and a tumult of angry voices. Eric's men were not behindhand,
and many of the guests drew swords to protect themselves. They were on
the verge of a bloody scene, when again Leif's voice sounded above the
uproar. He had drawn no weapon, nor swerved nor moved from his first
position.

"Put up your swords!" he said to his men.

Those who caught the under-note in his voice hastened to obey, even
while they protested.

He turned again to his father, and into his manner came that strange new
gentleness that is known as courtesy, which set him above the raging Red
One as a man is above a beast.

"It seems strange to me that the one who taught me the laws of
hospitality should be the one to break them with me. Nevertheless, now
that I have been frank with you, I will not anger you by speaking
further of my mission. And since you do not wish to lodge us, I and my
men will go back to my ship and sleep there until my errand is
accomplished. Valbrand, do you go first, that the others may follow you
in order."

The old warrior hesitated as he wheeled. "It is you who should go first,
my chief. The heathens will murder you. We--"

"You will do as I command," Leif interrupted him distinctly; and after
one glance at his face, they obeyed.

Nothing like this had ever been seen before. A hush of awe fell upon
Eric's men and Eric's guests. One by one the crew filed out, with
rumbling threats and scowling faces, but wordless and empty-handed.
Alwin took advantage of his close attendance to be the last to go, but
finally even he was forced to leave. Helga marched out beside him, her
head held very high, her eyes dealing sharper stabs than her dagger,
Leif's scar-let colors flying in her cheeks. Thorhild called to her, but
she swept on, unheeding.

At the door, Alwin paused to look back. Ne would not be denied that.
Leif still stood before his high-seat, holding Eric with his keen calm
eyes as a man holds a mad dog at bay. Never had he looked grander. Alwin
silently swore his oath of fealty anew.

That no one should accuse him of cowardice, the guardsman waited until
the door had closed upon the last one of his men. Then, slowly, with the
utmost composure, he walked out alone between the ranks of his enemies.

An involuntary murmur applauded him as he passed. Thorhild, torn as she
was between anger and pride, was quick to catch its meaning and to use
it. Whatever Leif's faith, she was still his mother. Taking her life in
her hand, she bent over and whispered in Eric's ear.

The darkness of his face became midnight blackness,--then was suddenly
rent apart as with lightning. He brought his fist down upon the table
with a mighty crash.

"Stop! When did I say anything against lodging you? Do you think to
throw shame upon my hospitality before my guests? I will have none of
your religion,--I spit upon it. You are no longer my son,--I disown you.
But you shall sleep under my roof and eat at my board so long as you
remain in Greenland, you and your following. No man shall breathe a word
against the hospitality of Eric of Brattahlid. Thorhall, light them to
sleeping rooms!" His breath, which had been growing shorter and shorter,
failed him utterly. He finished with a savage gesture, and threw himself
back in his chair.

If Leif had consulted his pride, it is likely that that night Greenland
would have seen the last of him. But foremost in his heart, before any
consideration for himself, was the success of his mission. After a
moment's hesitation, he accepted the offer courteously, and permitted
Thorhall's obsequious attendance.

One can imagine the amazement of his followers when he came out to them,
not only unharmed, but waited upon by the steward and a dozen
torch-bearers.

"It is because he is the Lucky One," they whispered to each other. "His
God helps him in everything. It is a faith to live and die for."

They followed him across the grassy courtyard to the foot of the steps
leading up to his sleeping-room, and would not leave him until he had
consented that Valbrand and Olver should go in with him for a bodyguard.

"And this boy also," he added, signing to Alwin.

As Alwin approached, Kark had the impudence to shoulder himself forward
also.

"Chief, are you going to turn me out to lie with the swine in the
kitchen?" he said boldly. "Remember that every time you have slept in
this room before, I have lain across your threshold."

Leif's glance pierced him through and through. "Is it sense for a man to
trust his slumbers to a dog that has bitten him once? Go lie in the
kennel. If it were not for provoking Eric, you would not wait long to
feel my blade." He turned and walked up the steps, with his hand on
Alwin's shoulder.

CHAPTER XV

A WOLF-PACK IN LEASH

He utters too many
Futile words
Who is never silent;
A garrulous tongue,
If it be not checked,
Sings often to its own harm.
Ha'vama'l

Out in the courtyard the four juniors of Leif's train were resting in
the shade of the great hall, after a vigorous ball-game. It was four
weeks since the crew of the "Sea-Deer" had come into shore-quarters; and
though the warmth of August was in the sunshine, the chill of dying
summer was already in the shadow. Sigurd drew his cloak around him with
a shiver.

"Br-r-r! The sweat drops are freezing on me. What a place this is!"

Rolf, leaning against the door-post, whittling, finished his snatch of
song,

"'Hew'd we with the Hanger!
It happed that when I young was
East in Eyrya's channel
Outpoured we blood for grim wolves,'"--

and looked down with his gentle smile. "If you mean that it is this
doorstep that is not to your mind, you take too much trouble. We must
leave it in a moment; do you not hear that?" He jerked his head toward
the gateway, from which direction they suddenly caught the faint notes
of hunters' horns. "It is Eric's men returning from their sport. In a
little while they will be here, and we must try our luck elsewhere."

He straightened himself lazily, flicking the chips from his dress; but
the other three sat doggedly unmoved.

Alwin said, testily: "I do not see why we must be kept jumping like
frightened rabbits because Leif has ordered us to avoid quarrels. What
trouble can we get into if we remain here without speaking, and give
them plenty of room to pass by us into the hall?"

Rolf smiled amiably at the three scowling faces. "Certainly you are good
mates to Ann the Simpleton, if you cannot tell any better than that what
would happen? They would go a rod out of their way to bump into one of
us. If they have been successful, their blood will be up so that they
will wish to fight for pleasure. If they have failed, they will be
murderous with anger. It took less than that to start the brawl in which
Olver was slain,--which I dare say you have not forgotten."

Alwin winced, and Sigurd shivered with something besides the cold. It
was not the bloody tumult of the fight that they remembered the most
clearly; it was what came after it. True to his interpretation of
hospitality, Eric had punished the murder of his guest's servant by
lopping off, with his own sword, the right hand of the murderer;
whereupon Leif had sworn to mete the same justice to any man of his who
should slay a follower of Eric.

Slowly, as the blaring horns and trampling hoofs drew nearer, the three
rose to their feet. Only Alwin struck the ground a savage blow with the
bat he still held.

"By Saint George! it is unbearable that we should be forced to act in
such a foolish way! Has Leif less spirit than a wood-goat? I do not see
what he means by it."

"Nor I," echoed Sigurd.

"Nor I," growled Egil. "I believed he had some of Eric's temper in him."

"I do not see why, myself," Rolf admitted; "but I see something that
seems to me of greater importance, and that is how he looked when he
gave the order."

They followed him across the grassy enclosure, though they still
grumbled.

"Where shall we go?"

"The stable also is full of Eric's men."

"Before long we shall be shoved off the land altogether. We will have to
swim over to Biorn's dwarf-country."

"I propose that we go to the landing place," exclaimed Sigurd. "It may
be that the ship which Valbrand sighted this morning is nearly here."

"I say nothing against that," Rolf assented.

They wheeled promptly toward a gate. But at that moment, Alwin caught
sight of a blue-gowned figure watering linen in front of the
women's-house.

"Do you go on without me," he said, drawing back. "I will follow in a
moment."

Sigurd threw him a keen glance. "Is it your intention to do anything
exciting, like quarrelling with Thorhall as you did last night? Let me
stay and share it."

There was a little embarrassment in Alwin's laugh. "No such intention
have I. I wish to see the hunters ride in."

The hunters were an imposing sight, as they swept into the court, and
broke ranks with a cheer that brought heads to every door. White-robed
thralls ran among the champing horses, unsaddling them; scarlet-cloaked
sportsmen tumbled heaps of feathered slain out of their game-bags upon
the grass; horns brayed, and hounds bayed and struggled in the leash.
But Alwin forgot to notice it, he was hurrying so eagerly to where
Helga, Gilli's daughter, walked between her strips of bleaching linen,
sprinkling them with water from a bronze pan with a little broom of
twigs.

The outline of her face was sharper and the roses glowed more faintly in
her cheeks, but she welcomed him with her beautiful frank smile.

"I was hoping some of you would think it worth while to come over here.
It is a great relief for me to speak to a man again. I am so tired of
women and their endless gabble of brewing and spinning. Yesterday
Freydis, Eric's daughter, drove over, and all the while she was here she
talked of nothing but--"

"Eric's daughter?" Alwin repeated in surprise. "Not until now have I
heard that Leif had a sister. Why is she never spoken of? Where does she
live?"

Helga shrugged impatiently. "She lives at Gardar with a witless man
named Thorvard, whom she married for his wealth. She is a despisable
creature. And the reason no one speaks of her is that if he did he would
feel Thorhild's hands in his hair. There is great hatred between them.
Yesterday they quarrelled before Freydis had been here any time at all.
And I was about to say that I was glad of it, since it brought about
Freydis' departure: all the time she was here she spoke of nothing save
her ornaments and costly things. Oh, I do not see why Odin had the wish
to create women! It would have been pleasanter if they had remained
elm-trees."

Alwin regarded her with eyes of the warmest good-will. "It would become
a heavy misfortune to me if you were an elm-tree,--though it is likely
that I should speak with you then quite as often as I do now. Except at
meals, I seldom see you. But I never pass your window that I do not
remember that you are toiling within, and say to myself that I am sorry
for your bad luck."

"I give you thanks," answered Helga, with her friendly smile. "Where
have the other men gone? I wished to speak with Sigurd."

"They have gone to the landing-place, to watch for a ship that Valbrand
sighted this morning from the rocks."

She cried out joyfully: "A ship in Einar's Fiord? Then it belongs to
some chief of the settlement, who is returning from a Viking voyage!
There will be a fine feast made to welcome him."

Alwin followed her doubtfully up the lane between the white patches. "Is
it likely that that will do us any good? It is possible that Leif will
not be invited."

The heat of her scorn was like to have dried the drops she was
scattering. "You are out of your senses. Do you think men who trade
among the Christians are so little-minded as Eric? Leif is known to be a
man of renown, and the friend of Olaf Trygvasson. They will be proud to
sit at table with him."

"It may be that he will refuse to feast with heathens."

"That is possible," Helga admitted. She emptied her pan with a little
flirt of impatience, and sighed. "How tiresome everything is! To sit at
a table where one is afraid to move lest there be a fight! I speak the
truth when I say that this is the merriest diversion I have,--standing
out here, watering linen, and watching who comes and goes. And now that
my pan is empty, I must betake myself indoors again. Yonder is Valbrand
beckoning you."

It is probable that Alwin would not have hurried to obey the summons,
but with a nod and a smile Helga turned away, and there was nothing for
him but to go forward to meet the steersman.

The old warrior regarded the young favorite with his usual apathy. "It
is the wish of Leif that you attend upon him directly."

"Is he in his sleeping-room?"

"Yes."

It occurred to Alwin to wonder at this summons. His usual hour for
reading came after Leif had retired for the night. If the chief had
overheard the dispute with Thorhall! He lingered, meditating a question;
but a second glance at Valbrand's battered face dissuaded him. He turned
sharply on his heel, and strode across to the storehouse that had become
Leif's headquarters.

A loft that could be reached only by a ladder-like outer stairway, and
was without fireplace or stove or means of heating, does not appear
inviting. But one has a keener sense of appreciation when he considers
that the other alternative was a bed in the great hall, where the air
was as foul as it was warm, and the room was shared with drunken men and
spilled beer and bones and scraps left from feasting. Alwin had no
inclination to hold his nose high in regard to his master's new
lodgings. England itself offered nothing more comfortable.

When he had come up the long flight of steps and swung open the heavy
door, he had even an impulse of admiration. This, the state
guest-chamber, was not without softening details. It was large and high
and weather-proof, and boasted three windows. The box-like straw-filled
beds, that were built against the wall, were spread with snowy linen and
covers of eiderdown. The long brass-bound chests that stood on either
side the door were piled with furs until they offered the softest and
warmest of resting-places. A score of Leif's rich dresses, hanging from
a row of nails, covered the bare walls as with a gorgeous tapestry. The
table was provided with graceful bronze water-pitchers and wash-basins
of silver, and was littered over with silver scissors and gold-mounted
combs and bright-hilted knives, and a medley of costly trinkets. Near
the table stood a great carved arm-chair.

At the sight of the man who leaned against its flaming red cushions of
eiderdown, Alwin forgot his admiration. The chief's eyebrows made a
bushy line across his nose. The young bowerman knew, without words, why
he had been sent for. He stopped where he was, a pace within the door,
angry and embarrassed.

After a while, Leif said sternly: "You are very silent now, but it
appears to me that I heard your voice loud enough in the hall last
night."

"It was only that I was accusing Thorhall of a trick that he tried to
put upon me. He allowed me to go up to the loft above the provision
house without telling me that the flooring had been taken up, so that
they might pour the new mead into the vat in the room below. In one more
step I should have fallen through the opening and been drowned. It is
plain he did it to avenge Kark. I should have burst if I had not told
him so."

"I have commanded that my men shall not hold speech with the men of Eric
except on friendly matters; that they shall avoid a quarrel as they
would avoid death."

His tone of quiet authority had begun to have its usual effect upon his
young follower; Alwin's head had bent before him. But suddenly he looked
up with a daring flash.

"Then I have not been disobedient to you, lord; for I would not avoid
death if it seemed to me that such shirking were cowardly."

A moment the retort brought a grim smile to Leif's lips; then suddenly
his face froze into a look of terrible anger. He half started from his
chair.

"Do you dare tell me to my face that, because I order you to keep the
peace, I am a coward?"

Alwin gave a great gasp. "Lord, there is no man in the world who would
dare speak such words to you. I but meant that I cannot bear such
treatment as Thorhall's in silence."

Had another said this, the answer might have been swift and fierce; but
Leif's manner toward this follower was always different from his way
with others,--whether out of respect for his accomplishment, or a fancy
for him, or because he discerned in him some refinement that was rare in
that brutal age. The anger faded from his face and he said quietly: "Can
you not bear so small a thing as that, for so great a cause as the
spreading of your faith?"

The boy started.

"Without peace in which to gain their friendship so that they will hear
us willingly, our cause is lost. It is not because I am a craven that I
bear to be the guest of the man who sought my life, who turns his face
from me when I sit at his board, who allows his servants to insult me.
Sometimes I think it would be easier to bear the martyrdom of the
blessed saints!" He made a sudden fierce movement in his chair, as
though the fire in his veins had leaped out and burnt his flesh.

Then, for the first time, Alwin understood. He bent before him, rebuked
and humbled.

"Lord, I see that I have done wrong. I ask you to pardon it. Say what
you would have me do."

"Put my commands ahead of your desires, as I put King Olaf's wish before
my pride, and as he sets the will of God before his will."

"I promise I will not fail you again, lord."

"See that you do not," Leif answered, with a touch of sternness.

CHAPTER XVI

A COURTIER OF THE KING

A better burden
No man bears on the way
Than much good sense;
That is thought better than riches
In a strange place:
Such is the recourse of the indigent.
Ha'vama'l

The next afternoon when Helga came out to water the linen, she found
Alwin waiting for her, on the pretext of hunting in the long grass for a
lost arrow-head.

He greeted her gayly: "I will offer you three chances to guess my news."

She paused, with her twig broom raised and dripping, and scanned him
eagerly. "Is it anything about the ship that came yesterday? I heard
among the women that it is the war-vessel of Eric's kinsman, Thorkel
Farserk, just come back from ravaging the Irish coast. Is his wife going
to make a feast to welcome him?"

"I will not deny that you have proved a good guesser. And, by Dunstan!
he deserves to be received well. Never saw I such a sight as that
landing! There were more slaves than there were men in the crew. Not a
man but had a bloody bandage on his head or his body, and the arms and
legs of some were lacking. Two of the crew were not there at all, and
their sweethearts had come down to the shore to meet them; and when they
found that they had been slain, they tore their hair and tried to kill
themselves with knives."

"That was foolish of them," said Helga, calmly. "Better was it that
their lovers should die in good repute than live in the shame of
cowardice. But tell me the news. Has it happened, as I supposed, that
there is going to be a feast, and Leif is asked to it?"

"Messengers came this morning from Farserk's wife. But you dare not
guess the rest."

"I dare throw this pan of water over you if you do not tell me
instantly."

"It would not matter much if you did. I am to have new clothes,--of
black velvet with bands of ermine. But hearken now: Leif has accepted
the invitation! Even Valbrand thinks this a great wonder. At this moment
Sigurd is selecting the chief's richest dress, and Rolf is getting out
the most costly of the gifts that were brought from Norway."

Helga set down her pan for the express purpose of clapping her hands.
"Now I am well content; for at last they will see him in all his glory,
and know what manner of man they have treated with disrespect. I have
hoped with all my heart for such a thing as this, but by no means did I
think he cared enough to do it."

Alwin shook his head hastily. "You must not get it into your mind that
it is to improve his own honor that he does it now. I know that for
certain. It is to give his mission a good appearance."

Helga picked up her pan with a sigh. "When he begins to preach that to
them, he will knock it all over again."

Alwin considered it his duty to frown at this; but it must be confessed
that something very similar was in his own thoughts as he followed his
lord into Thorkel Farserk's feasting-hall that night. Whatever his
religion, the guardsman's rank and his gallant appearance and fine
manners compelled admiration and respect. It could not but seem a pity
to his admirers that soon, with one word, he would he forced to undo it
all.

"It is harder than the martyrdom of the saints," Alwin murmured
bitterly. Then his eye fell upon the silver crucifix, shining pure and
bright on Leif's breast, and he realized the unworthiness of his
thoughts, and resigned himself with a sigh.

But he found that even yet Leif's purposes were beyond him. Never, by so
much as a word, did the guardsman refer to the subject of the new
religion,--though again and again his skilful tongue won for him the
attention of all at the table. He spoke of battles and of feasts, and of
the grandeur of the Northmen. With the old men he discussed Norwegian
politics; with the young ones he talked of the famous champions of King
Olaf's guard. To the women who wished to know concerning the King's
house, and the Queen, he answered with the utmost patience. He described
everything, from weddings to burials, with the skill of a minstrel and
the weight of an authority, and always with the tact of a courtier.

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19