"
"And Harold Godwinsson is king in his stead. And he has married your niece
Aldytha, and sworn friendship with her brothers."
"I expected no less. Well, every dog has his day."
"And his will be a short one. William of Normandy has sworn to drive him
out."
"Then he will do it. And so the poor little Swan-neck is packed into a
convent, that the houses of Godwin and Leofric may rush into each other's
arms, and perish together! Fools, fools, fools! I will hear no more of
such a mad world. My queen, tell me about your sweet self. What is all
this to me? Am I not a wolf's head, and a landless man?"
"O my king, have not the stars told me that you will be an earl and a
ruler of men, when all your foes are wolves' heads as you are now? And the
weird is coming true already. Tosti Godwinsson is in the town at this
moment, an outlaw and a wolf's head himself."
Hereward laughed a great laugh.
"Aha! Every man to his right place at last. Tell me about that, for it
will amuse me. I have heard naught of him since he sent the king his
Hereford thralls' arms and legs in the pickle-barrels; to show him, he
said, that there was plenty of cold meat on his royal demesnes."
"You have not heard, then, how he murdered in his own chamber at York,
Gamel Ormsson and Ulf Dolfinsson?"
"That poor little lad? Well, a gracious youth was Tosti, ever since he
went to kill his brother Harold with teeth and claws, like a wolf; and as
he grows in years, he grows in grace.
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