en present at the
first part of the siege, having but recently arrived from Norway. His
daughter Freda had accompanied him. "Yes," she was still unmarried,
although many valiant Northmen had sought her hand, chief among them
the brave leader Sweyn "of the left hand;" but there had been a fray on
the previous night in Siegbert's camp, and it was said--but for that he
could not vouch--that Freda had been carried off.

The news filled Edmund with anxiety. Ever since the day he left her on
her father's galley his thoughts had turned often to the Danish maiden,
and the resolution to carry out his promise and some day seek her again
had never for a moment wavered. He had seen many fair young Saxons, and
could have chosen a bride where he would among these, for few Saxons
girls would have turned a deaf ear to the wooing of one who was at once
of high rank, a prime favourite with the king, and regarded by his
countrymen as one of the bravest of the Saxon champions; but the
dark-haired Freda, who united the fearlessness and independence of a
woman with the frankness and gaiety of a child, had won his heart.

It was true she was a Dane and a pagan; but her father was his friend,
and would, he felt sure, offer no objections on the ground of the
enmity of the races. Since Guthorn and his people had embraced
Christianity, the enmity between the races, in England at least, was
rapidly declining. As to her religion, Edmund doubted not that she
would, under his guidance and teaching, soon cast away the
blood-stained gods of the Northmen and accept Christianity.

In the five years of strife and warfare which had elapsed since he saw
her Edmund had often pictured their next meeting. He had not doubted
that she would remain true to him. Few as were the words which had been
spoken, he knew that when she said, "I will wait for you even till I
die," she had meant it, and that she was not one to change. He had even
been purposing, on his return to England, to ask King Alfred to arrange
through Guthorn for a safe pass for him to go to Norway. To hear, then,
that she had been carried off from her father's side was a terrible
blow, and in his anxiety to arrive at Siegbert's tent Edmund urged the
rowers to their fullest exertions.

It was three hours after leaving Paris when the Dane pointed to a
village at a short distance from the river and told him that Siegbert
was lying there. The Dragon was steered to shore, and Edmund leaping
out follo