assed for silence, and then that we should
lie down and rest in the fern on the edge of a steep slope below
which shone the faint gleam of water.

Then came Wulfnoth and spoke to Olaf, and said that he and his men
would go beyond the village so as to take the outlaws from the
rear. He would send a man to us who would show us all that was
needed.

After that we lay and waited, and as the sun rose and the light
grew stronger, I thought that I had never seen a more beautiful
place.

We were above a little cliff of red rock that went down to the
valley of the Ashbourne brook. And all the valley from side to side
was full of the morning mists so that it seemed one lake, while the
woods were bright with the change of the leaf, from green to red
and gold--oak and beech and chestnut and hazel each with its own
colour, and all beautiful. The blue downs rose far away to our left
across the ridges of the forest land, and inland the Andred's-weald
stretched, rising hill above hill as far as one might see, timber
covered. There were trees between us and the village that we
sought; but above its place rose a dun cloud of smoke from some
houses fired that night by those who held it, and that was the one
thing that spoiled the beauty of all that I saw.

Now Olaf and I spoke of all this, whispering together, for we were
close to the village, and already we had heard voices from thence
as men woke. For Olaf was ever touched by the sight of a fair land
lying before him. And while he spoke, a man seemed to rise out of a
cleft of the rocks below us, and climbed up to us, and bowed before
us, saying that he was to guide us.

He was a great man, clad in leather from head to foot, and carrying
a sledgehammer over his shoulder. That and a billhook stuck in his
belt were his only weapons.

"I am Spray the smith," he said, in a low voice. "The earl is
ready, and the thane also. The knaves are all drunken with our ale,
and we may fall on them at once."

"Have they no watch kept?" asked Olaf wondering.

"None, master."

"Are there Danes with them?"

"Aye; half are Danes. But I met one of them last night and spoke to
him peacefully, being stronger than he, and I said that vikings had
come to Pevensea, and that the earl was minding them. So they fear
no one."

Then came a herdsman's call from the woods beyond the village, and
the smith said:

"That is the thane. Fall on, master, and fear nought."

Whereat I laughed, and the men sp