"And you, fair sir," said Alef, looking keenly at Hereward, "by what name
shall I call you, and what service can I do for you? You look more like an
earl's son than a merchant, and are come here surely for other things
besides tin."
"Health to King Alef," said Hereward, raising the cup. "Who I am I will
tell to none but Alef's self; but an earl's son I am, though an outlaw and
a rover. My lands are the breadth of my boot-sole. My plough is my sword.
My treasure is my good right hand. Nothing I have, and nothing I need,
save to serve noble kings and earls, and win me a champion's fame. If you
have battles to fight, tell me, that I may fight them for you. If you have
none, thank God for his peace; and let me eat and drink, and go in peace."
"King Alef needs neither man nor boy to fight his battle as long as
Ironhook sits in his hall."
It was the red-bearded giant who spoke in a broken tongue, part Scotch,
part Cornish, part Danish, which Hereward could hardly understand; but
that the ogre intended to insult him he understood well enough.
Hereward had hoped to find giants in Cornwall: and behold he had found one
at once; though rather, to judge from his looks, a Pictish than a Cornish
giant; and, true to his reckless determination to defy and fight every man
and beast who was willing to defy and fight him, he turned on his elbow
and stared at Ironhook in scorn, meditating some speech which might
provoke the hoped-for quarrel.
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