Good it was to ride over the
old land again, and I thought that it had never looked more fair with
the ripening harvest, for when last I had seen it there was none. The
track of the famine was yet on all the villages, for fewer folk were in
them than in the days before the pestilence and the dearth, but these
had enough and to spare.
And when these poor folk heard from us that Curan and his princess had
come again for what was hers, they took rusty weapons and flint-tipped
arrows and stone hammers from the hiding places in the thatch of their
hovels, and went across the marshlands to where the little hill of
Saltfleet stands above its haven, that they might help the one whom they
had loved as a fisher lad to become a mighty king.
So we came to Lincoln, and already there was a gathering of thanes and
their men in the town, and they knew on what errand we had come well
enough. But they were courteous, and we were given quarters in the town
at once, that we might see Alsi with the first light in the morning.
I will not say that we had a quiet night there, for we did not trust
Alsi; but we had no need to fear. In the morning Eglaf came to bid us to
the palace to speak with the king.
"This is about what I expected, when I heard of the mistake that our
king had made," he said, "and so far you are in luck.
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