r men whom we could, and so left the
ships and marched towards Colchester, along the great road that I
had last passed as a fugitive in the years that seemed to me so
long ago.

It was strange to me as we went, and the mist of time seemed to
pass away, so that all began to be as plain to my mind as if that
flight had been but yesterday. There was nothing of the wayside
happening that I could not remember well.

But all the roadside was changed, for the cottages were gone, and
the farmsteads stood no longer in the clearings. I know not what
tales of terror I might have heard concerning the burnings of these
homes. Where the thralls' huts had been were but patches of nettles
and docks hiding heaps of ashes, and the farmhouses were charred
ruins. And we saw now and then a man, skin clad and wretched,
seeking shelter in the woods in all haste as we sighted him. But I
had no need to ask aught--I knew only too well what manner of tales
might be told here, as everywhere in Swein's track.

As we drew nearer Colchester, and the village folk began to learn
who we were, and so would gather with gifts for the good-natured
Norsemen who came to release them from the tyranny of the thingmen,
now and then a face that I knew would start, as it were, upon me
from among a little crowd. But none knew me, nor were they likely
to do so. Hardly could I think myself the same as the careless boy
who had watched his father ride away to the war. Indeed, I know
that I changed less in the ten years that came after this than in
the four that had gone by since that day. For in those four years I
had become the hardened warrior of many defeats and but this one
victory.

Now when we reached Coggeshall village, word came to us that the
Danes were gathering in force in Colchester, and that they expected
Olaf to besiege them there.

"I will waste no time under Colchester walls," he said, "but will
strike inland a little; then they will come out and give us battle
in the open to stay our march."

By this time the loyal freemen of Essex had gathered to Ulfkytel in
good force, and Olaf thought it would be well that he should march
along the road that leads from Coggeshall to Dunmow and take that
town, which is strong, so that the Danish forces should not join
against us.

Therefore he left us, and would go northwards from Dunmow, taking
the towns from thence to Thetford and Norwich, and he should go to
Ipswich and maybe to Dunwich after this. So w