answer for the lady and himself at once."

He rose and held the cup high, and I rose also, not quite sure if I
were myself or some one else, with all the hall looking at me.

"Drinc hael to the lady Elfrida, bravest and fairest in all the
land of Somerset!" he cried. "Drinc hael, Oswald the king's
thane--thane by right of ready and brave service just rendered!"

Then he drank with his eyes on me, and there went up a sort of
cheer at his words, for men love to see any service rewarded on the
spot if it may be so. Now I was at a loss what to say, and the lady
should have been here to bring the cup to me in all formality.
Maybe I should have stood there silent and somewhat foolish, but
that the ealdorman, her father, helped me out.

"Come and do homage for the new rank, lad," he said in a low voice.

He was at the lower table near me now, for the high table had been
broken and the king stood alone on the dais.

So I went to the steps, and bent one knee at their top, and kissed
the hand of the king, and then held out the hilt of my sword, that
he might seem to take it and give it me again. But he bade me rise,
and so he took off his own sword, which was a wondrous one, and the
token of the submission of some chief on the Welsh border beyond
Avon, and he girt it on me with his own hands.

"You nigh gave your life for me, my thane," he said. "That man's
knife was perilously near you."