et out towards the border, and before long met
numbers of fugitives, weeping women carrying children, old men and
boys, making their way from the neighbourhood of the Danes. The men had
for the most part driven their herds into the woods, where they were
prepared to defend them as best they could against roving parties. They
learned that Haffa, a Danish jarl, with about 600 followers, was
plundering and ravaging the country about twelve miles away. The force
was a formidable one, but after consultation with Egbert, Edmund
determined to advance, deeming that he might find the Danes scattered
and cut off some of their parties.

As they neared the country of which the Danes were in possession the
smoke of burning villages and homesteads was seen rising heavily in the
air. Edmund halted for the night in a wood about a mile distant from a
blazing farm, and the band lay down for some hours.

Before daybreak three or four of the swiftest-footed of the men were
sent out to reconnoitre. They learned, from badly wounded men whom they
found lying near the burning farms, that the Danes had been plundering
in parties of twenty or thirty, but that the main body under Haffa lay
five miles away at the village of Bristowe.

A consultation was held, and it was agreed that the party should remain
hidden in the wood during the day, and that upon the following night
they should fall upon the Danes, trusting to the surprise to inflict
much damage upon them, and to be able to draw off before the enemy
could recover sufficiently to rally and attack them.

Accordingly about nine o'clock in the evening they started, and
marching rapidly approached Bristowe an hour and a half later. They
could see great fires blazing, and round them the Danes were carousing
after their forays of the day. Great numbers of cattle were penned up
near the village.

Edmund and Egbert having halted their men stole forward until close to
the village in order to learn the nature of the ground and the position
of the Danes. Upon their return they waited until the fires burned low
and the sound of shouting and singing decreased. It was useless to wait
longer, for they knew that many of the Danes would, according to their
custom, keep up their revelry all night. Crawling along the ground the
band made for the great pen where were herded the cattle which the
Danes had driven in from the surrounding country, and over which
several guards had been placed. Before starting