Now once more I stood clad in the arms of a free man and how good it was
to feel again the well known and loved weight of mail, and helm, and
sword tugging at me I cannot say. But this I know, that, like the strong
man of old our old priest told me of, as I shook myself, my strength and
manhood came back to me.
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.
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