Earl Rolf spake quietly in answer, though his face was somewhatshouldest thou lie to me? nor do I deem thou wouldest, for thou art trustyand worthy. Yet sore I doubt if the child be dead. Well, even so let it be,for I am alive; and full surely I am mightier than Jack of the Tofts, both totroubled: "Nay, Simon, I doubt thee not, not one word; for why uphold thee against him (wherein I shall not fail), and otherwise. Butmay God make me even as that young man if I be not mightier yet in afew days. But now do thou go and eat and drink and take thy disport; forthou hast served me well; and in a little while I shall make thee knight andlord, and do all I can to pleasure thee."
So then Simon knelt to the Earl and made obeisance to him, and aroseand went his ways, light-hearted and merry.
But within the month it so befel that some of the lords and dukes cameto the Earl Marshal, and prayed him to call together a great Folk-mote ofall Oakenrealm; and he answered them graciously, and behight them to doas they would; and even so did he.
And that Mote was very great, and whenas it was hallowed, therearose a great lord, grey and ancient, and bewailed him before the folk, thatthey had no king over Oakenrealm to uphold the laws & ward the land;and "Will ye live bare and kingless for ever?" said he at last. "Will ye notchoose you a king, and crown him, before I die, and we others of the realmwho are old and worn?" Then he sat down, and another arose, and in plainterms he bade them take the Earl Marshal to king. And then arose oneafter other, and each sang the same song, till the hearts of the people grewwarm with the big words, and at first many, and then more cried out: "AKing, a King! The Earl Marshal for King! Earl Rolf for King!" So that atlast the voices rose into a great roar, and sword clashed on shield, and theywho were about the Earl turned to him and upraised him on a great war-shield, and he stood thereon above the folk with a naked sword in his hand,and all the folk shouted about him.