And it was wondrous to see how each man went and looked
with doubt or wonder or just carelessly, and then turned away with a
great light of joy on his face and a new life in the whole turn and sway
of the body.
It was dark in the chamber, save for the dim spaces under the eaves that
let in the sweet air from the sea to the sleepers. But from somewhere
aloft, where the timbering of the upper walls toward the east had
shrunk, so that there was a little hole that faced the newly-risen sun,
came the long shaft of a sunbeam that pierced the darkness like a
glorious spear, and lit on the mighty shoulder of Havelok that lay bare
of covering, and on the white hand of Goldberga that was across it. And
on the one they saw the crimson bent-armed cross that was the mark of
the line whence he and his father had sprung, and on the other glowed
and flashed the blood-red stone of the ring of Eleyn the queen. And
round that circle of sunshine was light enough for the chiefs to see
those two noble faces, and they were content.
"Gunnar's son," said one old chief: "but were he only the son of Grim,
for those twain would I die."
So the warriors crept back to the hall silently as they had come; and
now they went out to their men and told them that all doubt had gone,
and along the road that led to Hodulf's town the jarl sent mounted men
to watch for his coming.
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