Cnut the new Danish king was at Gainsborough with all the force
that had followed Swein his father, and he had made a pact with the
Lindsey folk, who were Danes of the old settlement, and of landings
long before the time of Ingvar, that they should fight for him and
find provision and horses for his host.
So it seemed most likely that the next thing would be that he would
march on us, and Ethelred gathered all the forces to him here in
London that he could, against his coming. At once the English
thanes came in, and even Sigeferth and Morcar, the powerful lords
of the old Danish seven boroughs in Mercia, brought their men to
his help, and that was almost more than could have been hoped. Then
too came Edric Streone, the great Earl of Mercia, Eadmund's uncle
by marriage and his foster father, praying for and gaining full
forgiveness for having seemed to side with Swein, as he said. With
these was Ulfkytel, our East Anglian earl, and many more, while
word came from Utred of Northumbria that he would not hold back.
So it was not long before Ethelred and Eadmund rode away north
towards Gainsborough at the head of as good a force as they had
ever led, in order to be beforehand with the Danes, who as yet had
made no move. It seemed as though they feared this new rising of
all England against them, although all Swein's men who had been
victors before were there with their new king.
But Olaf, who knew more of Denmark and what might happen there than
we, said that Cnut waited for news from thence. It might be that
some trouble would arise at home, for seldom did a king come to his
throne there without fighting against upstarts who would take it.
"So he holds his force in readiness in the Humber to fall on either
Denmark or England. If things go ill at home, he will go over sea
first, and return here. But if all is well, we shall have fighting
enough presently."
Now when the court of Ethelred had gathered again, it was not long
before he grew more cold in his way with Olaf, and one might easily
see that this grew more so with the coming of Edric Streone. So
that when the march to Lindsey was spoken of, Olaf thought well to
stay in the Thames with the ships, and when Eadmund asked him to
come north with the levies he said:
"It seems to me that there are jealousies already among your thanes
concerning me, and I will not be the cause of any divisions among
your folk. Yet I would help you, and here is what I can do. I will
see that no landing is made on these southern shores while you are
northward, for if you beat Cnut he will take ship and come to Essex
or Kent; or maybe even into the Thames again. Give me authority to
command here until you return, and I think I can be of more use
than if I went with you."
So that was what was done in the end, and Olaf was named as captain
of the ships and of any southern host that he might be able to
raise, and Olaf asked that I might stay with him.
That our atheling granted gladly, telling me that it was for no
lack of wish on his part to have me at his side, as ever of late,
but that I should take a better place with the king my kinsman than
among the crowd of thanes who were round Ethelred. Then he took his
own sword from his side and gave it me.
"Farewell therefore for a while, Redwald, my comrade," he said when
he went away. "You have helped me to tide over many heavy hours
that would have pressed sorely on me but for your cheerfulness.
When peace comes you shall have your Anglian home again, with more
added to its manors for the sake of past days and good service."
That was much for the atheling to say, and heartily did I thank
him. Yet I had grown to love Olaf my kinsman better than any other
man, and I was glad to be with him, away from the court jealousies
and strivings for place. There was little of that in Olaf's fleet,
where all were old comrades, and had each long ago found the place
that he could best fill.
So the levies marched on Gainsborough, and Olaf bided in the Thames
and gathered ships and men till we had a fair fleet and a good
force. Then came the news that Cnut and all his host had taken ship
and fled from England without waiting to strike a blow at Ethelred,
and our folk thought that this was victory for us. But Olaf rode
down to the ships in haste, and took them down to Erith, while his
land levies followed on the Kentish shore. For he thought it likely
that Cnut did but leave Ethelred and his armies in Lindsey while he
would land here unopposed.
Then came a fisher's boat with word that Cnut's great fleet was
putting into Sandwich, but before we had planned to throw our force
between him and London came the strange news that again he had left
Kent and had sailed northwards.
We sailed then to Sandwich to learn what we might, sending two
swift ships to watch if Cnut put into the Essex creeks. But at
Sandwich we found the thanes whom Swein had held as hostages left,
cruelly maimed in hand and face, with the message from Cnut that he
would return.
"He may return," said Olaf, "but if all goes well he will find
England ready for him. There is some trouble in Denmark or he would
not leave us thus."
So now all that seemed to be on hand was to bring back the towns
that were yet held by the Danish garrisons, the thingmen, to their
rightful king, and to gather a fleet that would watch the coast
against the return of Cnut. These things seemed not so hard, and
our land would surely soon be secure.
Then began to creep into my mind a longing to be back in my own
place again at Bures, to see the river and woods that I loved, and
to take up the old quiet life that was half forgotten, but none the
less sweet to remember after all this war and wearing trouble. But
of all England, after Lindsey, East Anglia was the greatest Danish
stronghold for those old reasons that I have spoken of, and it was
likely that there would be more fighting there before Ethelred was
owned than anywhere else. So I could not go back yet, but must wait
for Earl Ulfkytel and his levies, who would surely make short work
of the Danes there when their turn came. After that my lands would
be my own again, and then--What wonder, after three years and more
of warfare and the hard life of a warrior who had no home but in a
court which was a camp--after exile in a strange land--with my
new-found kinship with Olaf the viking--that what should be then
had gone from my mind? Will any blame the warrior who did but
remember his playfellow as part of a long-ago dream of lost peace,
if he had forgotten what tie bound him to her? When I and little
Hertha were betrothed it had been nought to us but a pleasant show
wherein we had taken foremost parts--and across the gap of years of
trouble so it seemed to me still whenever I recalled it. I
remembered my confirmation at the good bishop's hands more plainly
than that, for well I knew what I took on me at that time.
But the knowledge of what our betrothal meant would have grown up
in our hearts had peace lasted. There had been none to mind me of
it, or of her, and warfare fills up the whole mind of a man. I was
brought up amid the scenes of camp and march and battle just at
that time when a boy's mind is ready to be filled with aught, and,
as he learns, the past slips away, for his real life has begun.
And these were strange days through which I had been. We grew old
quickly amid all the cruel trouble of the hopeless fighting. As
David, the holy king, grew from boy to man suddenly in his days,
which seem so like ours when one hears them read of in Holy Writ,
so it had been with Olaf--with Eadmund and Eadward his brother--so
it would be with Cnut, and so it was with myself. I have often
spoken with men who were rightly held as veteran warriors, and who
yet had seen less warfare in ten years than we saw in those three.
It was endless--unceasing--I would have none go through the like. I
know not now how we bore it.
So I had forgotten Hertha, whether there is blame to me or not. But
now, as I say, with the sudden slackening of warfare came to me the
longing for rest. I would fain find my home again and my playmate,
and all else that belonged to the past. But before I could do so
there was work to be done, and I was content to look forward and
wait.
Now I might make a long story of the doings of Olaf the king during
this summer. Ottar the scald has much to sing of what we wrought.
For we went through the fair land of Kent with our Norsemen and the
new levies, and brought back all the folk to Ethelred. It was no
hard task, for the poor people thought that Cnut had deceived them
by his flight; and they were ground down by the heavy payments the
Danes had levied on them. Only at Canterbury, inside whose walls
the Danish thingmen gathered in desperation, had we any trouble,
and we must needs lay siege to the place. But in the end Olaf and I
knelt in the ancient church of St. Martin and gave thanks for
victory. We had avenged the death of the martyred archbishop,
Elfheah.
Ethelred ravaged all Lindsey after Cnut was gone. It was a foolish
and cruel deed, and he left men there who hated his name more than
even the name of Swein, to whom they had bowed since they must.
Then he sat down at Oxford as if all were done, while to have
marched peacefully, but with a high hand, through the old Danelagh
would have made the land sure to him. Olaf did so in Kent, and when
we left it, we left a loyal people who would rise against Cnut for
Ethelred if the Danes should indeed return. And Lindsey would as
surely rise for Cnut against us.
But Olaf, though he blamed our king for this, in all singleness of
purpose went on with the task that he had undertaken. And now the
next thing was to gather a fleet.
"If we could win Wulfnoth of Sussex to help his king, we have a
fleet ready made," he said. "Let us sail to his place and speak
with him."
That was true, and the ships that Wulfnoth had were the king's by
right. They were the last of the fleet that England had had but
five years ago--and her mightiest.
Now it happened that I was to see much of this Earl Wulfnoth before
we had done with him, so I will say at once how he came to have the
king's ships, and how it was that we must ask his help for
Ethelred--or rather why he had not given it freely.
It was the fault of Brihtric, Edric Streone's brother, who had some
private grudge against him, and would ruin him if possible. So he
accused Wulfnoth of treachery to Ethelred, and that being the thing
that the king always dreaded from day to day--seeing maybe that he
was not free from blame in that matter himself--so prevailed that
the earl was outlawed. Whereon he fled to the fleet, and sailed
away with all the ships that would follow him.
Then Brihtric chased him with the rest, and met with storm and
shipwreck on the rugged southern coasts. And through the storm fell
on him Wulfnoth, and beat him and scattered or took the ships the
storm had spared. Brihtric left the rest to their own devices, and
the shipmen brought them back into the Thames. There the Danes took
them presently, and that was the end of England's fleet.
But Wulfnoth turned viking; and would have nought to do with
Ethelred after that. His Sussex earldom was beyond reach of attack
through the great Andred's-weald forests that keep its northern
borders, and he could keep the sea line. So Ethelred left him
alone, and Swein would not disturb him. But his help was worth
winning, and Olaf thought that he might do it.
So we sailed to Lymne, and then to Winchelsea, and there we heard
that the earl and some of his ships were at his great stronghold of
Pevensea, which lay not far westward along the coast. And we came
there in the second week of September, when the time was near that
the ships should be laid up in their winter quarters.
As we came off the mouth of the shallow tidal haven that runs
behind the great castle, whose old Roman walls seem strong as ever,
a boat from the shore came off very boldly to speak with us. But we
could see the sparkle of arms as some ships were manned in all
haste lest we were no friendly comers.
The leader of the boat's crew was a handsome boy of about fifteen,
well armed and fearless, and he stepped on board Olaf's ship
without mistrust when the king hailed him.
"Who are you, and what would you on these shores?" he asked before
we had spoken.
Olaf laughed pleasantly in his quiet way, and answered:
"I must know who asks me before I say aught."
"Maybe that is fair," said the boy. "I am Godwine, son of Wulfnoth
the earl."
"Then you have right to ask," answered our king. "I am Olaf
Haraldsson. I am a viking, and come in peace to see and speak with
your father."
The boy stared at the king in wonder for a moment.
"Are you truly Olaf the Thick, who broke London Bridge?" he asked.
"Well, I had some hand in it," answered Olaf laughing, "for I told
the men when to pull, and when they pulled, the bridge came down.
They did it and I looked on."
Then young Godwine laughed also, and bade the king welcome most
heartily, adding:
"You must tell me all about the bridge breaking presently."
"Nay; but Redwald my cousin, or Ottar my scald here will tell you
more than I may."
"Redwald is an Anglian name," said Godwine, taking my hand. "Are
you English therefore?"
"Aye, young sir, from East Anglian Bures, in Suffolk," I answered.
"Are you Edric Streone's man then?" he said, dropping my hand
suddenly and half stepping back.
"I am not," I said pretty stoutly, for I was angry with Streone's
way with Olaf--and with other ways of his. "Ulfkytel is our earl."
"Aye, I have heard of him as an honest man," Godwine said.
"Come ashore, King Olaf, and you other thanes, and there will be
good cheer for you."
"Can you steer us into the haven, young sir?" asked Rani, who stood
by smiling to himself. "We must have the ships inside the island
while the tide serves."
"Aye, that I can," said the boy eagerly; "I take my own ship in and
out without troubling any other to help."
And with that he took hold of Rani's arm and showed him mark after
mark, giving him depth of water and the like, while we listened and
watched his face.
Presently Olaf said:
"Take command of my ship, Godwine, and lead the rest."
"You will take the risk, lord king," he answered laughing.
"Aye, and will hold you blameless if she takes the ground before
she is beached."
Now there was no doubt that Godwine was used to command, and was
confident in himself, for he made no more ado, but took charge, and
bade Rani signal the rest to follow, while he went to the helm
himself.
Then said Olaf to me while the boy was intent on his work: "Here is
one who will be a great man in England some day, and I think before
long."
And I had thought the same; for Earl Wulfnoth's son would rank high
for the sake of his birth, and it seemed that he was fitted to take
the great place that might be his.
So Godwine beached the ships well, in the lee of the island on
which the great castle stands when the tide is high, and we went
ashore. The castle gates were well guarded in our honour, for
Godwine had sent the boat back with word who we were.
There greeted us Earl Wulfnoth himself in the courtyard of his
great house. One went inside the castle walls to find almost a
village of buildings, all of timber, that had grown up round the
hall that stood in the midst, and that had its courtyard and
stockading, as had our own house on the open hill at Bures. I think
there was no stronger place than this castle of Pevensea in all
Sussex, if anywhere on the southern coasts.
Now it were long to say how Wulfnoth the earl welcomed King Olaf,
but it was after a kingly sort, for he was king in all but name in
his earldom, shut off as it is from the rest of England by the deep
forests. But he feasted us for two days before he would speak a
word with Olaf as to what he had come to ask him, saying that it
was enough for him to see the bridge breaker and the taker of
Canterbury town, and to do him honour. For Olaf's fame had gone
widely through all England.
Now Godwine would ever talk with me, for I could tell him of Olaf,
and also of the long war, and of the Norman court, so that we
became great friends. But he had no liking for Ethelred, which was
not wonderful, seeing that Wulfnoth his father had not a good word
to say for him.
At last, when Olaf told him plainly of the needs of England and of
her king, and of what he feared of the return of Cnut, Earl
Wulfnoth answered:
"Had you come to ask me to go a-viking with yourself, gladly would
I have joined with or followed you. Godwine my son has yet some
things to learn which a Norseman could teach him, and it would have
been well. But Ethelred holds me as a traitor; and while Edric
Streone is at his side I will not have aught to do with him. I will
drive any Dane out of my land, and that is all. Neither Ethelred
nor Cnut is aught to me. I and my son are earls of Sussex."
Then he rose up from his high seat and strode out of the hall,
bidding us follow him. He led us to the eastern gate, and climbed
to the broad top of the ramparts.
"See yonder," he said, and pointed eastward across the river and
marsh. "There is the hill where our standard has been raised time
after time since OElla and Cissa drove in flight the Welsh who had
raised theirs in the same place before us. There will I raise it
again against Cnut or Streone or any other of his men."
"Edric Streone is with King Ethelred," said Olaf; "he is not Cnut's
man."
"He has been Swein's man; and if it suits him will be Cnut's. I
will not alter my saying of him."
"Ethelred believes in him," answered Olaf, "and Eadmund the
Atheling believes in him as in himself."
"So much the worse for them," said the earl; "you will see if I am
not right. I know Edric Streone over well, and he knows it, and
hates me."
"Come, therefore, and take Ethelred out of his hands," Olaf said.
"Not I. Let him inlaw me again first. I will not go and ask pardon
for what I have not done."
And after that the earl would say no more on the matter, waxing
wroth if Olaf would try to persuade him. So it seemed that our
journey was lost; and Olaf began to be anxious to return to the
Thames, where our ships should go into winter quarters. But the
wind held in the east, and kept us for a while.
Wulfnoth was not sorry for this, for it was full harvest time, and
he sent his housecarles out to his other manors to gather it, so
that he had few folk about him. Godwine went with them to a place
on the downs called Chancton, where was a great house of the earl.
We parted unwillingly; but we might sail at any time if the wind
shifted, and the earl would have him go.
"When you have done with fighting for Ethelred the Unredy," said
the boy to me, "bring Olaf back here, and you and I, friend
Redwald, will go a-viking with him. He says he wants to go to
Jerusalem Land some day--and that would be a good cruise."
Now the day after the housecarles left Pevensea, there befell a
matter which would have brought them back hastily had we not been
in the haven. There was always a beacon fire ready to recall them,
and they watched for it even as they wrought in the upland fields,
or if they were among the woods. Turn by turn one would climb to a
place whence it could be seen, for one may never know what need
shall be on our English shores, and I was to learn that need for
arms might be in a forest-girt land also, from foes at home.
Olaf and I were in the ships. The wind was unsteady, and it seemed
that a shift was coming with that night's new moon, and we were
preparing for sailing. And from our decks we saw a little train of
people crossing the difficult path from the mainland to the island
that folk can only use when the tide is low, and then only if they
know it well or have a guide to lead them. They say that once the
path was always under water, but that the land grows slowly, and
that at some time the island will be joined to the low hills that
are nearest to it on the northwest.
We went back almost as these folk came into the castle garth by the
western gate, and met them in the courtyard. Then it was plain that
there was trouble on hand, for the leader of the party was a thane
whom I knew by sight, as he had been called to our feasting when
first we came, and he had brought with him two ladies, who came in
no sort of state; and, moreover, there were one or two wounded men
among the twenty rough housecarles who followed them, and bore such
burdens of household stuff as had been taken by us when we fled
from Bures.
I had seen the like too often to mistake these signs, and I said to
Olaf:
"Here is fighting on hand, my king."
And then before he answered, came Wulfnoth out of the great door
and hurried up to the party, doffing his velvet cap as he saw the
ladies.
"Ho, friend Relf," he said, "what is amiss?"
"Outlaws, earl," said the thane, "and in strong force."
"This is the pest of my life," answered the earl angrily, "for no
sooner are our men gone harvesting than these forest knaves begin
to give trouble.
"When were you last burnt out, Relf of Penhurst?" and he laughed in
an angry way that had no mirth in it.
"Four years agone--after our trouble with Brihtric," answered the
thane. "They have not been so bold since then; and the small fights
I have had with them have not been so fierce that I must fetch you
from Bosham to my help."
"Evil times make them bold," said the earl. "How many are there in
this band?"
"Enough to sack the Penhurst miners' village," the thane said. "Men
say that there are Danes among them; and I know that there are men
who are well armed beyond the wont of outlaws and forest dwellers."
Then Wulfnoth called to us:
"See here, King Olaf, this is your fault; you have driven the Danes
out of Kent into our forests, and now we have trouble enough on our
hands."
"Then, Earl Wulfnoth," answered Olaf, "my men and I will fight them
here again."
But when we drew near I was fain to look on one of the two ladies
who still sat on their horses waiting for the earl's pleasure. One
was Relf the thane's wife, and the other his daughter; and it was
in my mind that I had never seen so beautiful a maiden as this was.
It seemed to me that I could willingly give my life in battle
against those who had harmed her home, if she might know that I did
so.
But the thane was telling Olaf that there must be some three
hundred of the outlaws and others.
"I had forty-two men yesterday, and I have but twenty with me now,"
said he.
"Then you fought?" asked Wulfnoth.
"Aye," answered the thane shortly, for it was plain enough that he
had done so.
"Have they burnt your house?"
"Not when I left. They are mostly strangers to the land, and they
bide where there is ale and plunder, in the old Penhurst village at
the valley's head."
"Then," said Olaf, "let us march at once and save the thane's
hall."
"That is well said," answered the earl, rubbing his hands with
glee. "We will make a full end; there will be no more trouble for
many a year to come."
Then he bethought him of the two ladies, and he called his steward
and bade him take them in. At which, when they would dismount, I
went to help the maiden, and was pleased that she thanked me for
the little trouble, looking at me shyly. I think that I had not
heard a more pleasant voice than hers, or so it seemed to me at the
time. She went into the house with her mother, and I was left with
a remembrance of her words that bided with me; and I called myself
foolish for thinking twice of the meeting.
Then the earl and Olaf and Relf began to speak of the best way in
which to deal with these plunderers; and as I looked at the stout
fair-haired thane it seemed to me that things must have been bad if
he had had to fly.
It would seem that his place was some ten miles from Pevensea,
lying at the head of a forest valley, down which was a string of
the old hammer ponds that the Romans made when they worked the
iron. And the village, or town as he called it, was in the next
valley, at the head of the little river Ashbourne, whose waters
joined the river which makes the haven of Pevensea. The town was
very old, and had a few earthworks round it, though the place
whereon it stood was strong by nature. The iron workers in the old
Roman days had first built there, and they knew how to choose their
ground. Thence, too, the Romans would float their boatloads of iron
down to the port of Anderida, as they called Pevensea; and there
were yet old stone buildings that had been raised by them.
So if these outlaws chose to hold the place, it was likely that we
should have some fighting, though this would not be quite after the
manner of forest dwellers, unless it were true that Danes were
among them.
"Whether there is any fight in them or not," said Wulfnoth, "I will
have the place surrounded, and let not one get away."
"That is early morning work," Olaf answered. "How many of my men
will you have?"
"It depends on what manner of men they are," said the earl. "All I
know of them yet is that they are good trenchermen."
That pleased not Olaf altogether, for there seemed to be a little
slight in the words--as though he had come to the earl to be fed
only. And he made a sign to me that I knew well; and I thought to
myself that Wulfnoth of Sussex was likely to wish that he had seen
our warriors in their war gear before.
Olaf paid no heed to me as I went quickly down to the ships. The
men were lying about and watching the sky, for it was changing. But
at one word from me there was no more listlessness; and Rani called
them to quarters. I would that in the English levies there was the
order and quickness that was in Olaf's ships. Yet these men had
been with him for years, and were not like our hastily-gathered
villagers.
So in ten minutes or less they were armed and ready for aught; and
Rani and I led them up to the castle, leaving the ship guard set,
as if we were making a landing in earnest on an enemy's shore.
Eight hundred strong we were, and foremost marched the men of
Olaf's ship, each one of whom wore ring mail of the best and a good
helm, and carried both sword and axe and round shield.
Wulfnoth stood with his back to the gate as we entered with the
leading files. But when he heard the tramp and ring of warriors in
their mail, he started and turned round sharply. I saw his face
flush red, and I saw Olaf's smile, and Relf's face of wonder. And
then the earl broke out--angrily enough--for his castle was, as it
were, taken by Olaf.
"What is the meaning of this?"
"You wished to see my men, lord earl," said Olaf. "I sent for them
therefore. King Ethelred, for whom they fight just now, was pleased
with them."
Then the earl saw that Olaf tried one last plan by which to make
him side with the king. Maybe he thought that this chance had been
waited for, but it was not so. Therefore he choked down his anger
that we should come unbidden into his fortress, and laughed
harshly.
"Well for me, King Olaf, that you come in peace, as it seems. One
may see that these men are no untried war smiths."
"There is no man in my own crew who has not seen four battles with
me," answered Olaf. "Some have seen more. The rest of the men have
each seen two fights of mine."
"I would that I had somewhat on hand that was worthy to be counted
as another battle of yours, instead of a hunting of these forest
wolves," answered Wulfnoth, seeming to grow less angry. "Supposing
that you and I were to fight for the crown of England for
ourselves--either of us has as much right thereto as Cnut."
"The Danes hold that England has paid scatt {6} to their king
as overlord, and that is proof of right for Cnut, as they say,"
answered Olaf.
"They say!" growled Wulfnoth fiercely. "King and witan and people
have been fools enough to buy peace with gold and not with edged
steel. But that has been ransom, not tribute. When a warrior is
made prisoner and held to ransom, is the man who takes the gold to
set him free his master, therefore, ever after? Scatt, forsooth! I
have a mind to go and teach the pack of fools whom Streone leads by
the nose and calls a witan, that there is one man left in England
who is strong enough to make them pay scatt to himself!"
Then Olaf said, very quietly:
"Why not put an end to Danegeld once for all by helping me drive
out the last Dane from England? We should be strong enough as
things are now.
"For Streone and his tools to reap the benefit? Not I," said the
earl. "Come, we have forgotten our own business."
Now it seemed to me that Wulfnoth was eager to get our men back to
the ships outside of the walls again, for there is no doubt that
had Olaf chosen to take the place for Ethelred it was already done.
But such thought of treachery to his host could never be in Olaf's
mind, and it was the last time that he tried to win the earl over.
So Wulfnoth went quickly down the ranks and noted all things as a
chief such as he will. But now and then he waxed moody, and growled
in his thick beard, "Scatt, forsooth!"
So presently he asked Olaf to bring two ship's crews--about
eight-score men in all--against the outlaws. Fifty of his own
housecarles would go, and Relf's twenty. And they were to be ready
two hours before dawn, as he meant to surprise the outlaws in the
village at the first light.
Then he praised the men, and had ale brought out for them, and so
recovered his good temper, and at last he said to Olaf with a great
laugh:
"Verily you may go away and boast that you are the first man who
has brought his armed followers inside Pevensea walls without
leave, since the days when OElla and Cissa forced the Welsh to let
them in. Now I wot that Ethelred has a friend who must be reckoned
with."
"Nay, but you would see the men," said Olaf.
"Aye, and I have seen them," answered the earl grimly.
When we sat down in the hall that night I was next to the maiden
Sexberga, Relf's daughter, at the high table. She was very
different from the great ladies of the court, who were all that I
knew. I tried to assure her that her home would be safe, and I
promised her many things in order to see her smile, and to please
her.
Yet when I went down to the ships presently, for none of us slept
within Wulfnoth's walls, I was glad that there was no light of
burning houses over Penhurst woods, as yet.