aking to him of what I had said. Then
the jarl turned round to me, speaking quietly enough, but in a
strange voice.

"Come with me and we will speak of this matter to Eadmund himself.
Then will the business be settled at once."

That was all I would wish, and being willing to speak yet more with
Raud, I said I would follow. He turned again, and looked no more at
me.

Then I asked Raud of his brother, and of Thoralf, my other
companion of flight. They were both slain, one at Gainsborough and
one at Medehamstede. Thormod was with Halfden in Wessex, where they
had made a landing to keep Ethelred, our Wessex overlord, from
sending to our help. But as to Halfden, men said that he would not
come to East Anglia, for the Lady Osritha had over persuaded him.

Then, though I would not ask in any downright way, I found that
Osritha was well, but grieving, as they thought, for the danger of
her brothers--and of that I had my own thoughts.

So with talk of the days that seemed so long past, we went on into
Hoxne woods, through which Raud said that he had learnt we must go
to meet the host in its onward march from Thetford.

"Jarl Ingvar lets not the grass grow under his feet," I said.

We came to a place where the woodland track broadened out into a
clearing, and there waited the other Danes, and with them, sitting
alone now on the horse, was Eadmund the King.

Pale he was, and all soiled with the stains of war, and with the
moss and greenery of his strange hiding place; but his eye was
bright and fearless, and he sat upright and stately though he was
yet with his hands bound behind him.

I rode past Ingvar and to Eadmund's side, and throwing myself from
my horse stood by him, while the Dane glared at us both without
speaking.

"Why run thus into danger, Wulfric my son?" said the king, speaking
gently; "better have let me be the only victim."

"That you shall not be, my king," I answered; "for if you must die,
I will be with you. But I have come to try to ransom you."

"There are two words concerning that," said Ingvar in his cold
voice. "Maybe I will take no gold for Eadmund."

"What shall we give you then?" I asked, looking earnestly at him.

"You heard what I said this morning before the battle. I have no
other terms but those. And I think they are light--as from the son
of Lodbrok whom this king's servant slew."

Now Eadmund spoke, saying to Ingvar:

"Let me hear what are your terms for my freedom. In the sl