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.
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