Take him up and bathe him, wife;
and if he is the one I think him, there will be a mark whereby we may
know him."
"How should he be marked? And why look you to find any sign thus?"
But Grim had turned down the rough shirt and bared the child's neck and
right shoulder, whereon were bruises that made Leva well-nigh weep as
she saw them, for it was plain that he had been evilly treated for many
days before this. But there on the white skin was the mark of the king's
line---the red four-armed cross with bent ends which Gunnar and all
his forebears had borne.
Seeing that, Leva looked up wondering in her husband's face, and he
answered the question that he saw written in her eyes.
"He is as I thought---he is Havelok, the son of Gunnar, our king.
Hodulf gave him to me that I might drown him."
Then he told her all that had happened, and how from the first time that
he had lifted the sack and felt what was within it he had feared that
this was what was being done. Hodulf would have no rival growing up
beside him, and as he dared not slay him openly, he would have it
thought that he had been stolen away by his father's friends, and then
folk would maybe wait quietly in hopes that he would come again when
time went on.
Now Leva bathed Havelok in the great tub, and with the warmth and
comfort of the hot water he waked and was well content, so that
straightway, when he was dressed in Withelm's holiday clothes, which
fitted him, though he was but seven years old at this time, and Withelm
was a well-grown boy enough for his ten winters, he asked for food, and
they gave him what was yet on the board; and we lived well in Denmark.
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