"I am an old man, I pray you do not take my words amiss. There is peace
between us, as you say, and we thank you for your courtesy, but the
stains are still fresh upon our swords. Let us camp here without your
walls, and a little later, when the grass has grown upon the fields where
we have striven, and our young men have had time to forget, we will make
merry together, as men should who dwell side by side in the same land."
But the men of the town still urged Haafager, calling his people
neighbours; and the Abbot, who had hastened down, fearing there might be
strife, added his words to theirs, saying:--
"Pass in, my children. Let there indeed be peace between you, that the
blessing of God may be upon the land, and upon both Dane and Saxon"; for
the Abbot saw that the townsmen were well disposed towards the Danes, and
knew that men, when they have feasted and drunk together, think kinder of
one another.