"
I would he were alive now; but that might not be. And I knew not then
why he thus spoke, unless he had known and loved my father.
So I stood before those two judges and looked them in the face; and then
one moved uneasily in his seat to their left, and my eyes were drawn to
him. It was Matelgar, and, as I saw him, I smiled for I thought him a
friend at least; but he looked not at me. Then from him I turned to seek
the face of some other whom I might know. And I saw thanes, friends of
my father, whom I had not cared to seek; and of these some frowned on
me, but some looked pityingly, as I thought, though it was but for a
moment that my eyes might leave the faces of those two judges before me.
Now, were it not that when I go over what followed my heart still rises
up again in a wrath and mad bitterness that I fain would feel no more, I
would tell all of that trial, if trial one could call it, where there
was none to speak for the accused, and every word was against him.
And in that trial I myself took little part by word or motion, standing
there and listening as though the words spoken of me concerned another,
as indeed, they might well have done.
But first Eanulf spoke to me, bending his brows as he did so, and
frowning on me.
Pages:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25