Hereward, The Last of the English

k his share at Si

years; he had burst (says the chronicler) through the Irish camp with a chosen band of Berserkers, slain O'Brodar in his tent, brought off his war-horn as a trophy, and cut his way back t

a fine fellow if she did not. Hereward knew that he had won honor and glory for himself; that his name was in the mouths of all warriors and sea-rovers round the coasts as the most likely young champion of the time, able to rival, if he had the opportunity, the prowess of Harold Hardraade himself. Yes, he would go and see his mothe

ot heard this

e for the man I want, and he is not on the Irish shores. Some say he is gone

whom art

d Gunlaugsson

wantest

gh his brain." And

ther's

bound to revenge her upon any man, and all the more if that man had first his wicked will of that poor mother? Considering that last, lord, I do not know but what I am bound to avenge my mother's shame upon the man, even if he had never killed her. No, lord, you need n

, and got at once two good vessels

ck. They were excellent, new "snekrs," nearly eighty feet long each; with double banks for twelve oars a side in the waist, which was open, save a fighting gangway along the sides; wit

and over them the barrels of ale and pork and meal, well covered with tarpaulins. They stowed in the cabins, fore and aft, their weapons,-swords, spears, axes, bows, chests of arrow-heads, leather bags of bowstrings, mail-shirts, and helmets, an

rides, intending, of course, to plunder as he went: but there he got but little booty, and lost several men. So he went on again to the Orkneys, to try for fresh hands from the Norse Earl Hereof; but there befell a fresh mishap. They were followed by a whale, which

; and Hereward had to leave a dozen stout fellows in Kirkwa

y the l

fter te

the su

afte

or and

k for al

and foul

omen a

, rolling and spouting and breaching in most uncanny wise. Some said that they saw a gray woman on his back; and they knew-possibl

saw low land to the eastward, but what or where who could tell? and as for making it, the wind, which had blown hard from northeast, backed a

gs upon his back,-an excellent recipe in such cases, but somewhat difficult in a heavy sea. Others said that there was a doomed man on board, and proposed to c

od of my

e of my

gir, brin

at he ca

spray, shr

an's-flight

es, troth

er we'

ithersoever the storm should choose. At night a sea broke over them, and would have swamped the Otter, had she not been the best of sea-boats. But she only rolled the lee

, showing naught but gray sea an

y, my s

r the d

nd wet

r be

our c

y the wit

gir g

ng, to

to die

g the

ts of the men we

ight blue sky, a green rolling sea, and, a few miles off to leeward, a pale yellow line, seen only as they topped a wave, but seen only too well. To keep the sh

tar-brush know whether we are going to be drowned in Christian waters? I should like

be anywhere between the Texel and Cap Gris Nez

nders, we should have been only knocked on the head outright; but if we fall among t

artin. "We can all be drow

ll high, and that gives us one chance for our lives. Keep her head straight, and row like fiends

d as slaves; and the petty counts of the French and Flemish shores were but too likely to extract ransom by prison and torture, as Guy Earl of Penthieu would ha

the shore after the waifs of the storm, deserted "jetsom and lagend," and crowded t

but neither strike nor shoot till I give the word. We mus

n hand. "Now then," as she rushed into the breake

nded them with spray. She grazed the sand once, twice, thrice, leaping forward gallantly each time; and then, pressed by a h

ot the broad hats of peaceful buscarles, but peaked helmets, round red shields, and glittering axes. They drew bac

these fellows that we are not afraid of

k, as he seemed, upon a mule. They stopped to talk with the peasants, and then to consult among themselves. Suddenly the boy turned from his party; an

French, as he brandished a huntin

the ship with hand and heel, his long locks streaming in the wind, his face full of courage and

pretty, bold boy?" ask

" "am Arnulf, grandson and heir of Baldwin, Marquis of Flanders, and lo

ne of the most famous and prosperous of northern potentates, the descendant

th one, "to catch that young wh

before he can turn," said another,

I master in th

od of Baldwin of the Iron Arm has not degenerated. I

ch so well, and yet by your dres

eard of your grandfather, that he is a just man and a bountiful; therefore take this message to him, young sir. If he have wars toward, I and my men will fight for him with all our might

had to be represt again by Hereward. "You are Vikings! Then come on shore, and welcome. You shall be my friends. Yo

the old master, "and thou wou

ith the boy, but by no means su

had by this time ridden cautiously down to

ode down and tal

ed he, before he would adve

r Clerk, and dare do n

red cloak, rich gloves and boots, moreover his a

a word, against you, the Chatelain of St. Omer, with all his knights, besides knights and men-at-arm

he will. If he does the first, we shall kill, each of us, a few of his men before we die; if the l

lk of nothing but slaying and being slain; not knowing that his soul is slain already by sin, and

e are hungry and wet and desperate just now; and if you do not settle this

fresh consultation ensued, after which the boy, with a warning gestu

father himself, I verily

fted and dried themselves as well as they could, ate what provisions were unspoilt by the salt wat

him more knights and men-at-arms. He announced himself as Manas

at we shall be his friends and brothers. He has said that he will answer to his grandfather, the gre

atelain! Abbot! these men are mine. They sh

fend!" murmu

ast, within your ramparts

and sail the seas with them, like my Uncle Robert, and go to Spain and fight the Moors, and to Constantinople and marr

cast a rope, as my sailors would have had me do, over that young boy's fair head, and haled him on board, to answer for my life with his own. But I loved him, and trusted him, as I would an angel out of heaven; and I trust h

ly, that I, too, am inclined to trust you; and if my young lord will have it so, into St. Be

ined the matter to the men, without whose advice (fo

ey, as they packed up ea

sword, and leaping from t

ween his, fair sir,

the manner

t hand, and grasped it in

down, men, and take this young lord's hand

w red. But none of them bowed, or made obeisance. They looked the boy full in the face, and as t

no man, and call no man m

eir descendants of Scotland and

d deer-sinew; their red Danish jerkins; their blue sea-cloaks, fastened on the shoulder with rich brooches; and the gold and silver bracelets on their wrists. He wond

,-just such as my Unc

e uncle," he asked, "is well? He was one of us poor sea-cocks, and sailed the swan's path gallan

t forward th

ounds. He should tell him a

the tide by that time had left her high and dry), and wond

hing-boats. No. You must be all hungry and tired. We will go to St. Bertin at once, and you shall be feasted royally. Hearken, villains!" shouted he to the peasan

ine. You should build twenty more after her pattern, a

rd and S

o far on t

noble uncle

the boy had dismounted one of his

sail," said the chatelain, as he remarked with

any booty to be picked up in the clouds there overhead"; and he rode on b

at last, "look there, and le

rips of corn-land and snug farms, which stretched

do you

o till the old estate when he could till no more. Might not that be a better life-at least a happier one-than restless, homeless, aimless adventure? And now, just as he had had a hope of peace,-a hope of seeing his own land

silent and

an?" asked the b

man: let him an

asked on

ou may rule it justly, and keep it in peace, as they say your grandfather and your father do; and leave glory and fame and the Vikings'

entered that ancient fortress, so strong that it was the hiding-place in war time for all the treasures of the country, and so sacred withal that no woman, dead or alive, was allowed to defile it by her presence; so

y, where St. Bertin was left to defend himself and his monks all alone against the wicked world outside. Far different had been their case some hundred and seventy years before. Then St. Valeri and St. Riquier of Ponthieu, transported thither from their own resting-places in France for fear of the invading Northmen, had joined their suffrages and merits to those of St

hts and men-at-arms he came, and Count Arnulf had to send home th

ne what I commanded, thou and thy successors shall reign in the kingdom of France to everlasting generat

fter warning, to plunder the altar? [Footnote: Ibid.] Let them remember, too, the fate of their own forefathers, the heathens of the North, and the check which, one hundred and seventy years before, they had received under those very walls. They had exterminated the people of Walcheren; they had taken prisoner Count Regnier; they had burnt Ghent, Bruges, and St. Omer itself, close by; they had left naught between the Scheldt and the Somme, save stark corpses and blackened ruins. What could withstand them till they dared to lift audacious hands against the heavenly lord who sleeps there in Sithiu? Then they poured do

cast longing eyes at the gold and tapestri

o Hereward and his men that it had been surely by the merits and suf

he accident of the tide being high, they knew full well; and that St. Bertin should have done them the service was pro

ing honestly for them; and after mass he took from his shoulders a handsome silk cloak (the only one he had),

ey despised during life), that he appeared that night to a certain monk, and told him that if Hereward would continue duly to honor h

te of all remonstrances from the Abbot, would never leave his side till he had heard fr