inst their common foe, and send a quota of ships and men, we
would drive the Black Raven from the seas, and might even land on the
Danish shores and give them a taste of the suffering they have
inflicted elsewhere. As it is, all seem paralysed. Local efforts are
made to resist them; but their numbers are too great to be thus
withstood. I wonder that the pope does not call Christendom to arms
against these pagan robbers, who not only destroy towns and villages,
but level to the ground the holy shrines, and slay the ministers of God
on the altars."

CHAPTER XIII: THE SIEGE OF PARIS

On the following morning Edmund, who had returned to his ship to sleep,
was aroused by loud shouts on deck. Hurrying from his cabin he saw a
vast fleet of ships approaching the mouth of the river. They were of
all sizes--from great sailing ships to rowing galleys. It needed but a
glance at them to assure him that they were the dreaded ships of the
Northmen, for the Black Raven floated at many of the mast-heads.

From the town the sounds of horns and great shoutings could be heard,
showing that there too the approaching fleet had just been discerned as
the morning fog lifted from the sea. Edmund held a hurried consultation
with his kinsman. It was now too late to gain the sea, for the Danish
ships had already reached the mouth of the river. To attempt to escape
by fighting would be madness, and they hesitated only whether to run
the ship ashore, and, leaving her there, enter the town and share in
its defence, or to proceed up the river with all speed to Rouen, or
even to Paris.

The latter course was decided upon, for the Danish ships would contain
so vast a number of men that there was little hope that Havre could
resist their attack, nor was it likely that Rouen, which, on the
previous year had been captured and sacked, would even attempt another
resistance, which would only bring massacre and ruin upon its
inhabitants. Paris alone, the capital of the Frankish kings, seemed to
offer a refuge. The deliberation was a short one, and by the time the
men had taken their places at the oars their leaders had decided upon
their course.

The anchor ropes were cut, for not a moment was to be lost, the leading
ships of the Danes being already less than half a mile distant. The
tide was flowing, and the Dragon swept rapidly up the river. Some of
the Danish galleys followed for a while, but seeing that the Dragon had
the speed of them, they