Soon after that there came a Norseman, dressed as a merchant, who talked
with my father of goods, and lading, and whither he was bound, and the
like. When he went away, he thought that he had found out that we were
for the Texel, but I do not know that he was from Hodulf. There had been
time for him to send a spy in haste, however, if he wished to watch us;
but at any rate this man heard naught of our charges.
Then, at the last moment, my mother and the children came on board, and
at once we hauled out of the harbour. I mind that an old woman ran along
the wharf when she found that all were going, and cried that Dame Leva
had not paid for certain fowls bought of her; and my father laughed in
lightness of heart, and threw her a silver penny, so that she let us go
with a blessing. And after that it did not matter what the people
thought of this going of ours, for in an hour we were far at sea with a
fair wind on the quarter, heading south at first, that the Norseman
might see us, but when the land was dim astern, and there was no more
fear, bearing away south and west for the Humber in far-off England.
Now that was the last I saw of Denmark for many a long year, and I knew
it must be so. But, as I have told, none but my father and mother, and
now Arngeir, knew all that we were carrying with us.
CHAPTER IV.
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