“For mercy’s sake! you will not harm the lad?” “If I were a wise man now, and hard-hearted as wise men should be, I should--I should--” and he played the point of the sword backwards and forwards, nearer and nearer to the lad’s throat. “Master! master!” cried Leofric, clinging to his knees; “by all the saints! What would the Blessed Virgin say to such a deed!” “Well, I suppose you are right. And I fear what my lady at home might say; and we must not do anything to vex her, you know. Well, let us do it handsomely, if we must do it. Get water somewhere, in his helmet. No, you need not linger. I will not cut his throat before you come back.” Leofric went off in search of water, and Hereward knelt with the Atheling’s head on his knee, and on his lip a sneer at all things in heaven and earth. To have that lad stand between him and all his projects, and to be forced, for honor’s sake, to let him stand! But soon his men returned, seemingly in high glee, and other knights with them. “Hey, lads!” said he, “I aimed at the falcon and shot the goose. Here is Edgar Atheling prisoner. Shall we put him to ransom?” “He has no money, and Malcolm of Scotland is much too wise to lend him any,” said some one. And some more rough jokes passed. “Do you know, sirs, that he who lies there is your king?” asked a very tall and noble-looking knight. “That do we not,” said Hereward, sharply. “There is no king in England this day, as far as I know. And there will be none north of the Watling Street, till he be chosen in full husting, and anointed at York, as well as Winchester or London. We have had one king made for us in the last forty years, and we intend to make the next ourselves.” “And who art thou, who talkest so bold, of king-making?” “And who art thou, who askest so bold who I am?” “I am Waltheof Siwardsson, the Earl, and yon is my army behind me.” “And I am Hereward Leofricsson, the outlaw, and yon is my army behind me.” If the two champions had flown at each other’s throats, and their armies had followed their example, simply as dogs fly at each other, they know not why, no one would have been astonished in those unhappy times. But it fell not out upon that wise; for Waltheof, leaping from his horse, pulled off his helmet, and seizing Hereward by both hands, cried,-- “Blessed is the day which sees again in England Hereward, who has upheld throughout all lands and seas the honor of English chivalry!”