"'Bonny times,' he said, 'I have lived to see, when a lad of Earl Oslac's
blood is sent out of the land, a beggar and a wolf's head, for playing a
boy's trick or two, and upsetting a shaveling priest! We managed such wild
young colts better, we Vikings who conquered the Danelagh. If Canute had
had a son like Hereward--as would to God he had had!--he would have dealt
with him as old Swend Forkbeard (God grant I meet him in Valhalla, in
spite of all priests!) did by Canute himself when he was young, and kicked
and plunged awhile at being first bitted and saddled.'
"'What does the man say?' asked the King, for old Surturbrand was talking
broad Danish.
"'He is a housecarle of mine, Lord King, a good man and true; but old age
and rough Danish blood has made him forget that he stands before kings and
earls.'
"'By ----, Earl!' says Surturbrand, 'I have fought knee to knee beside a
braver king than that there, and nobler earls than ever a one here; and
was never afraid, like a free Dane, to speak my mind to them, by sea or
land. And if the King, with his French ways, does not understand a plain
man's talk, the two earls yonder do right well, and I say,--Deal by this
lad in the good old fashion. Give him half a dozen long ships, and what
crews he can get together, and send him out, as Canute would have done, to
seek his fortune like a Viking; and if he comes home with plenty of
wounds, and plenty of plunder, give him an earldom as he deserves.
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