Part 6 (1/2)
”Know thou, stranger, King Knut is more than king of men. The sea itself obeys him.”
Had Ulf been older he would have pa.s.sed it by unnoticed. As it was he merely asked Knut, with lifted eyebrow,
”Are these captains thine advisers?”
The King flushed hotly and turned to his flatterers.
”Sayest thou I am the lord of the sea--that it will obey my word?”
A dozen voices shouted ”Yea!” in as many different ways. The King looked at them steadily for a moment, then with a half-smile waved his hand to his throne from which he had arisen, and said,
”Carry me that to the sh.o.r.e, and do thou attend.”
It was low tide, but the young flood had begun to come in, and when the throne was placed well out toward the water, Knut seated himself and said,
”Wait! now shall we see the value of advisers.”
Presently the incoming tide drew near, and the King arose, stretched out his hand to the waters and said,
”Back! I, Knut the Great, command thee. Back!”
Never a word replied the sea, but still the unceasing tide crept steadily on.
”Back, I say! Knut, Master of the Sea, commands it!”
Lip-lap, lip-lap came a gentle wave with a white fringe, circling in eddies landward, and splashed ever so gently under the royal chair; and if the King had not lifted them with haste the royal feet would have been wet. Then said the King, grimly smiling,
”It is well my men have proved their worth as captains, and need not be judged by this.”
And his councillors were ashamed, and could not look him in the face for many days. But to Ulf he made presents of value.
Then said Ulf, with a rueful laugh,
”King Knut, I had deemed I had at least one thing worth offering as a gift to a King,” and with the word he laid before him the white bear's hide, tanned with the head on, and in the cleft of it still stood the keen-edged battle-axe.
Knut's eye twinkled, reading now the reason for the young man's discomposure, for in his hall lay stretched a wealth of just such trophies, and he asked how it was won.
”Singlehanded,” said Ulf.
”A shaft to each leg, then spear to the throat and axe to the brain.”
Then said the King, significantly,
”If I have eleven other bearskins, am I not eleven times the better able to know its worth? It _is_ a gift for a King!” and Ulf was content.
And History tells that in after days, when King Knut wanted to make an especially valuable gift to the Minster of Crowland, he could think of nothing richer than twelve great white bearskins, one for each of the twelve Apostles. I like to believe that one of them had a deep cleft in the back of the head, where Ulf's axe sank in. But I think Knut knew the value of a good steel weapon too well to give _that_ away, for we read in another book that such an axe once owned by him was handed down till Harold of England owned it, and with it he cut to pieces a suit of armour hung on a post, by way of showing his strength to the King whose guest or prisoner he was--for at the time he was a little of both. And every stroke slashed that armour in such great holes that I think the axe that did it must indeed have been of Star, or nickel steel, and of itself a gift for a King!
For many a day Ulf dwelt with the King, and even sailed to Denmark with him for a s.p.a.ce.
At last the time came for Knut to return to England, the larger country, where he lived for most of his reign, and Ulf went back with him and Edith with Ulf, of course. A mighty fleet sailed also,--never had either of them seen so many s.h.i.+ps before,--and when the roll of the oars in the rowlocks came slipping over the gla.s.sy sea it rumbled like muttered thunder. Stirred by the sound, here and there the wilder blades among the crews remembered old war-days, and struck up the Northmen's warsong, the laughing, murder-singing ”Yuch-hey-saa-saa- saa,” that had carried terror with it to the lands beyond the water; and the trading vessels within hearing swung hastily southward and rowed away for dear life, fully believing that war had come again.