第 35 页

from his work at the forge for a time, but had quite understood that the

wish to pay a visit to his family was but a cloak, and that the boy was to

be employed in some service for Wulf. Guessing, therefore, that the message

was one that should be delivered in private, he bade the boy follow him

from the forge and took him into the room above.

"What is it you would say to me, Ulf? Mind, I wish to hear nothing about

any private matter in which you may be engaged either by Wulf or Osgod.

They are both away and may not return for a month or more. I judged the

matter was a private one, as Osgod said nought of it to me."

"The matter is a private one, master, but as they are away I would fain

take your counsel on it."

The armourer shook his head decidedly. "I can listen to nought about it,

boy. It can be no business of mine, and unless he has given you license to

speak I would not on any account meddle with the affairs of the young

thane, who is a good lord to my son."

"That he has not done, sir; but I pray you to hear me," he added urgently

as the armourer was turning to leave the room. "It is a matter that may

touch the safety of our lord the king."

The armourer stopped. "Art well assured of what you say, Ulf?"

"For myself I can say nothing, master, but the young thane told me that he

had fears that some attempt or other might be made from the other side of

the sea against the king's life, and that although he had no strong

grounds, he thought that Walter Fitz-Urse, who had just returned here,

might be concerned in it, he having reasons for enmity against the king.

Therefore he appointed me to watch him."

He then related the scene he had witnessed on the river bank the evening

before.

"It is a strange story indeed, Ulf, and whatever it may mean, this meeting

can have been for no good purpose. The secrecy with which it was conducted

is enough to prove it. It is indeed unfortunate that you did not understand

what was said, for much may depend upon it. Well, this is a grave affair,

and I must think it over, Ulf. You have done well in telling me. Has any

plan occurred to you?"

"I thought that you might accompany me, master."

"That would I willingly, but though I have picked up enough of their tongue

to enable me to do business with the Normans at the king's court when they

come in to buy a dagger or to have a piece of armour repaired, I could not

follow their talk one with another. We must obtain someone who can speak

their language well, and who can be trusted to be discreet and silent. Why,

were it but whispered abroad that some Normans are plotting against the

life of the king, there would be so angry a stir that every Norman in the

land might be hunted down and slain. Do not go down to the forge, I will

tell my wife to give you some food, and you had best then go up to the

attic and sleep. You will have to be afoot again to-night, and it were well

that you kept altogether away from the others, so as to avoid inconvenient

questions. I will come up to you when I have thought the matter over."

"Is aught troubling you, Ulred?" the armourer's wife asked when breakfast

was over and the men had gone downstairs again to their work. "Never have I

seen you sit so silently at the board."

"I am worried about a matter which I have learned this morning. It matters

not what it is now. Some time later you shall hear of it, but at present I

am pledged to say no word about it. I want above all things to find one who

speaks the Norman tongue well, and is yet a true Englishman. I have been

puzzling my brains, but cannot bethink me of anyone. Canst thou help me?"

"Except about the court there are few such to be found, Ulred. If Wulf of

Steyning had been here he could doubtless have assisted you had it been a

matter you could have confided to him; for Osgod said that although he

himself had learned but little Norman his master was able to talk freely

with the Norman nobles."

"Ay, he learnt it partly when a page at court. But what you say reminds me

that it was but yesterday afternoon his friend Beorn came into my shop. He

had just arrived from his estate, and said how disappointed he was at

finding that Wulf had left London. I will go to the palace and see him at

once. I know but little of him save that I have heard from Osgod that he is

Wulf's firmest friend, and they fought together across in Normandy and

again against the Welsh. He has been here several times to have weapons

repaired, and knows that Osgod is Wulf's man. I wonder I did not think of

him, but my thoughts were running on people of our own condition."

Ulred at once put on his cap and proceeded to the palace, where he found

Beorn without difficulty.

"You have not come to tell me that the blade I left with you yesterday

cannot be fitted with a new hilt, Master Ulred? It is a favourite weapon

of mine, and I would rather pay twice the price of a new one than lose it."

"I have come on another matter, my Lord Beorn. It is for your private ear.

May I pray you to come with me to my house, where I can enter upon it

without fear of being overheard?"

"Certainly I will come, Ulred, though I cannot think what this matter may

be."

"It concerns in some way the Thane of Steyning, my lord, and others even

higher in position."

"That is enough," Beorn said. "Anything that concerns Wulf concerns me, and

as he is in the matter you can count on me without question."

Upon reaching his house Ulred left Beorn for a moment in the room upstairs,

and fetched Ulf down from the attic.

"This is an apprentice lad of mine," he said, "and as it is he who has been

employed by the Thane of Steyning in this affair, it were best that he

himself informed you of it"

When Ulf had finished his story Beorn exclaimed, "I will go at once, and

will put such an affront upon this Walter Fitz-Urse that he must needs meet

me in mortal combat."

"But even if you slay him, my lord, that may not interfere with the

carrying out of this enterprise, in which, as we know, another of equal

rank with him is engaged."

"That is true, master armourer, and I spoke hastily. I thought perhaps it

was for this that you had informed me of the matter."

"No, my lord; it seemed to me that the first thing was to assure ourselves

for a certainty that the affair is really a plot against the king's life,

of which we have as yet no manner of proof, but simply the suspicion

entertained by my son's master. The first necessity is to find out for a

truth that it is so, and secondly to learn how and when it is to be carried

out; and this can only be by overhearing another conversation between the

plotters. As you have heard, Ulf could have learnt all this if he had but

understood the Norman tongue. Could I have spoken it well enough to follow

the conversation I would not have troubled you, but it seemed to me that at

their next meeting it needed that one should be present who could speak

Norman well. After considering in vain how to find one who should at once

know the Norman tongue and be a true and trustworthy Englishman, my

thoughts fell upon you, of whom I have always heard my son speak as the

companion and friend of his master, and I made bold to come and lay the

matter before you, thinking that you might either take it in hand yourself

or name one suitable for it."

"Certainly I will take it in hand myself," Beorn said, "and right glad am I

that you came to me. A matter in which the king's life is concerned I would

trust to no one but myself. And now, how think you shall we proceed? for

it may well be that these plotters may not meet again for some time, seeing

that the king is away."

"So it seems to me," the armourer said; "and, moreover, they may in their

talk last night have appointed some other place of meeting."

"What think you, Ulf?" Beorn said, turning to the boy. "Wulf would not

have chosen you for this business had he not had a good opinion of your

shrewdness; and, indeed, you have shown yourself well worthy of his

confidence."

"I should say, my lord, that I must go on the watch as before. It is most

likely that the Norman will, sooner or later, go out in the same disguise

and by the same way as before, and that the hour will be between seven and

nine in the evening--most likely between seven and eight, in order that he

may return from the meeting before the bishop's doors are closed for the

night."

"I will keep watch with you, Ulf. Were I sure that the meeting would take

place at the same spot as before you should show me where they landed, and

I would lie down there in readiness, but as they may meet elsewhere, it

seems to me that I must post myself by your side."

"It would be better, my lord, if you would take your place on the other

side of the open space, for although I, being small, can escape notice, you

might well be seen by those approaching the door. It will be necessary,

too, that you should put on sandals of soft leather or cloth, so that your

footfall should not be heard. Then, as I follow him, I would run to where

you are posted, and you could follow me, so that you could keep me in sight

and yet be beyond his view, for all our plans would be foiled should he

suspect that he was being followed."

"I will do as you advise. Come with me now and we will fix upon a station

to night, and afterwards you may be sure of finding me there between

half-past six and ten. Should you wish to see me at any other time you will

find me at the palace; I will not stir out between eight and nine in the

morning. I must say I wish it were warmer weather, for a watch of three

hours with the snow on the ground--and it is beginning to fall now--is not

so pleasant a way of spending the evening as I had looked for when I came

hither."

Beorn went out with Ulf, and they fixed upon a doorway some twenty yards

from the street down which the Norman had before gone.

"We must hope he will go by the same way," Beorn said, "for should he turn

to the right or left after issuing from the gate he will have gone so far

before you can run across and fetch me that we may well fail to pick up his

track again. It were well if we could arrange some signal by which you

would let me know should he so turn off. It would not do for you to call or

whistle."

"No, my lord; but I could howl like a dog. He would but think it some cur

lying under the wall I might howl once if he turns to the right, twice if

he turns to the left, and you could then cross the ground in that

direction, and I could meet you on the way without losing sight of him for

long."

"That would do well, Ulf, if you are sure you could imitate the howl of a

dog so nearly that he would not suspect it."

"I can do that," Ulf said confidently. "I have used the signal before with

my comrades, and to make sure will go out to the fields and practise

daily."

A month passed. Harold was still away in the North, and complete success

was attending his journey. The influence of Bishop Wulfstan, who was

greatly respected throughout the kingdom, did much, but Harold himself did

more. His noble presence, his courtesy to all, the assurances he gave of

his desire that all men should be well and justly ruled, that evil-doers of

whatever rank should be punished, that there should be no oppression and no

exaction of taxes beyond those borne by the whole community, won the hearts

of the people. They were, moreover, gratified by the confidence that he had

shown in coming among them, and in seeing for the first time in the memory

of man a monarch of England in Northumbria.

Ulf and Beorn had kept regular watch, but without success, and Ulf's

comrades had as steadily watched the other entrances. Beorn had two or

three conferences with Ulf. He was becoming impatient at the long delay,

though he acknowledged that it was possible it had been arranged that no

more meetings should take place until it was known that Harold was about to

return. The armourer was perhaps the most impatient of the three. He was

doing nothing, and his anxiety made him so irritable and captious at his

work that his men wondered what had come over their master. After fretting

for three weeks over his own inaction, he one morning told Ulf to go to

Beorn and say that he begged to have speech with him. An hour later Beorn

returned with Ulf.

"I bethought me last night, my lord," Ulred said, "while I lay awake

wondering over the matter, whether these fellows are still on board ship or

are in lodgings in London."

"It might be either, Ulred. I have frequently thought over the matter.

Possibly they may have stayed on board their ship till she left, and then

have come on shore in the guise of peaceful traders."

"If the ship did not return at once they may still be on board," the

armourer said, "for the wind has blown steadily from the east for the last

five weeks, and no ships have been able to leave the port. I blame myself

sorely that I did not think of it before, but at least I will lose no time

now if you think that good might come of it."

"It would certainly be good if you could find either the ship or the house

where the men are in lodging, but seeing that you know nothing of their

appearance or number, nor the name of the ship in which they came nor the

port she sailed from, I see not how you could set about it."

"I will first go to the port-reeve's office and find out the names of the

ships that arrived just before the time that the meeting by the river took

place. She may have come in early that day, or on the day before. They

would surely send word at once to him that they had arrived."

"You might learn something that way, Ulred, but we do not know that the