him; sooner would I slay him. All thought that a great jest and laughed. While
they were shouting I slipped between them and got up the stairs into a
chamber, where I bolted the door and would not open to them, though they
pounded their fists sore and cursed at me. After a while the pounding became
an exertion to them, and one began to talk about the mead that was waiting
below. And after that they whispered together for a space. At last they began
to laugh and jeer, and called to me that they would go down and drink my
wedding toast before they broke in the door and fetched me; and then they
betook themselves to feasting."

Sister Wynfreda bent her head to murmur a prayer: "God forgive me if I have
lacked charity in my judgment on the Pagans! If they who have seen the light
can do such deeds, what can be expected of those who yet labor under the curse
of darkness?"

"I do not understand you," Randalin said wearily, sinking on the grass and
passing her hands over her strained eyes. "When a man looks with eyes of
longing upon another man's property, it is to be expected that he will do as
much evil as luck allows him. Though he has got Baddeby, Norman was covetous
of Avalcomb. When his lord, Edric Jarl, was still King Edmund's man, he twice
beset the castle, and my father twice held it against him. And his greed was
such that he could not stay away even after Edric had become the man of
Canute."

It was the nun's turn for bewilderment. "The man of Canute? Edric of Mercia,
who is married to the King's sister? It cannot be that you know what you say!"

"Certainly I know what I say," the girl returned a little impatiently. "All
English lords are fraudulent; men can see that by the state of the country.
Though he be thrice kinsman to the English King, Edric Jarl has joined the