Then I said:

"So that you hold me not guilty, my brother, I mind not so much;
for if I must die you will take my place, and my father will not be
without a son.

"I think you guilty!" he cried; "how could that be? Shame on me
were I to dream thereof--and on any man of all who know you who
would deem you could be so."

"Have you heard all?"

"Aye, for the earl has told me very patiently, being kind, for all
his strange ways. At last I told him that his wish for justice
blinded his common sense. And at that, instead of being wrath, he
smiled at me as on a child, and said, 'What know you of justice?';
so that I was as one who would beat down a stone wall with his
fists---helpless. He is not to be moved. What can I do?" and almost
did he weep for my hard case.

"Let things go their own way, my brother," I said gently. "I do not
fear the sea, nor this man here--Beorn. Do you go to Reedham and
tend Lodbrok's hawk for me, and send word to my father, that he may
come home, and to the king, so that Lodbrok may have honourable
burial."

He promised me those things, and then went back upon the slaying of
Lodbrok, asking how it came about.