But now, whereas I had been haled from my feasting a careless boy, and
had stood before my judges as an angry man, as I look back, I see that
from that arming I rose up a grim and desperate warrior with wrongs to
right, and the will and strength to right them.

So I stood for a little, and the savage thoughts that went through my
mind I may not write. Then I turned to my captive and looked at him,
though I thought nothing concerning him. But what he saw written in my
face as it glowered on him from under the helmet bade him cry aloud to
me to spare him.

And at that I laughed. It was so good to feel that this enemy of mine
feared me. At that laugh--and it sounded not like my own, even to
myself--the man writhed, and besought me again for mercy. But I had no
mind to kill him, and a thought crossed me.

"Matelgar bade you slay me," I said, "that I know. Tell me why he has
sought my life and I will spare you."

"Master," said the man hastily, "I knew not whom I was to slay. Matelgar
bade me follow Gurth yonder, and smite whom he smote."

"It would have mattered not--you would have slain me as well as any
other."

"Nay, master," the man said earnestly, "that would I not."

"You lie," I answered curtly enough; "like master like man. Tell me what
I bade you."