nd their sad faces
and listless mien told of the despair which everywhere prevailed. In
every church the altars had been thrown down, the holy emblems and
images destroyed, the monks and priests had fled across the sea or had
been slain.

The Danish gods, Thor and Woden, had become the divinities of the land,
and the Saxons, in whom Christianity had but recently supplanted the
superstitions of paganism, were fast returning to the worship of the
pagan gods. Edmund and his companions were shocked at the change. On
reaching home they found that the ravages of the Danes had here been
particularly severe, doubtless in revenge for the heavy loss which had
been sustained by them in their attack upon Edmund's fortification. His
own abode had been completely levelled to the ground, and the villages
and farm-houses for the most part wholly destroyed. His people were
lying in rude shelters which they had raised, but their condition was
very much better than that of the people in general.

The news of Edmund's return spread like wildfire, and excited the most
extreme joy among his people, who had long given him up for lost. He
found to his delight that the Dragon had returned safely, and that she
was laid up in her old hiding-place. The great amount of spoil with
which she was loaded had enabled her crew largely to assist their
friends, and it was this which had already raised the condition of the
people above that of their neighbours. Houses were being gradually
rebuilt, animals had been brought from districts which had been less
ravaged by the Danes, and something approaching comfort was being
rapidly restored.

Upon the day after Edmund's return Egbert arrived. Feeling sure of
Edmund's death he had taken no steps towards rebuilding the house, but
was living a wild life in the woods, when the news reached him that
Edmund had reappeared. His own large share of the booty with that of
Edmund he had buried, with the portion set aside for the king, in the
wood near the spot where the Dragon was laid up.

They had passed up the Parrot at night unobserved by the Danes, and
after taking the masts out of the Dragon, and dismantling her, they had
laid her up in the hole near the river where she was built. There was
little fear of her discovery there, for the Danes were for the most
part gathered in winter quarters at the great camp near Chippenham.

Egbert's delight at the reappearance of Edmund was unbounded, for he
loved him as a s