Every
morning he comes into the market, and there you can ask him if there is
a place for you, and he loves to look on a man such as Curan. But if it
is weapons you want--and I suppose that is in the minds of tall men
always, though it brings sorrow in the end--there is the captain of
the guard who lives over the gate, and he might be glad to see you enough."
We said that we would see the steward, for we wanted no long employment.
We would go back to Grimsby when the famine ended, if it were only by
the coming of the fish again.
Then she gave us of the best she had--black bread and milk to wit; and
after that we slept soundly before the fire, as I had done many times
before in that humble house. Black bread and milk it was again in the
morning; but there was plenty, and goodwill to season it. Then the old
dame sent us forth cheerfully and early, that we might not miss Berthun
the steward, from whom she hoped great things for us.
So we sat in the marketplace for an hour or more watching the gates of
the wall for his coming; and men stared at Havelok, so that we went to
the bridge and waited there. One could see all the market from thence.
There were a good many of the market folk coming in presently, and most
of them knew me, and more than one stopped and spoke.
Now Havelok grew restless, and wandered here and there looking at
things, though not going far from me; and while I was thus alone on the
bridge, a man I knew by sight came and leaned on the rail by me, and
told me that he had just seen the most handsome man and the goodliest to
look on that was in the kingdom, as he thought.
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