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74 added. “We feared to eat the food of the Danes, and more we feared to drink their ale.”

The old man sank back upon the cushions, while Thorgills went forward to procure them refreshment. Maidoch sat down beside her father. “Thou dost think we are in safety?” she asked.

“Aye, truly,” answered Fiachtna. “Yon youth seems of a kind heart, and the great king—didst thou not mark how powerful a warrior he is, and a true Christian?”

Thorgills returned with the food, dried fish and brown. bread, with some ale. The old man drank from the bronze horn, and Maidoch tasted the ale at her father’s suggestion. Then they ate of the food, and she listened in silence, as her father and Thorgills spoke of King Olaf’s sojourn in Ireland.