ere a mound and field names
point to a severe forgotten fight in the line which a southern
invader would take between Colchester and Sudbury, may be
pardonable for the purposes of Redwald's story.

With regard to other historic incidents in the tale, some are from
the Danish "Knytlinga" and "Jomsvikinga" Sagas, which alone give us
the age of Cnut on his accession to the throne, and recount the
interception of Queen Emma by Thorkel's men on her projected
flight. In the ordinary course of history the age of the wise king
is disregarded, and the doings of the three great jarls are
naturally enough credited to him, for after the first few years of
confusion have been passed over, he takes his place as the greatest
of our rulers since Alfred, and his age is forgotten in his
wonderful policy.

The doings of Edric Streone are partly from the hints give by the
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, and partly from the accounts of later
English writers. But there is no chronicle of either English,
Danish, or Norse origin which does not hold him and his treachery
in the utmost scorn.

The account of the battle of Ashingdon follows the definite local
traditions of the place. The line of the river banks have changed
but little, and Cnut's earthworks still remain at Canewdon. The
first battlefield is yet known, and they still tell how Eadmund was
forced to fight on Ashingdon hill because his way across the ford
was barred by the Danish ships, and how the pursuit of the routed
English ended at Hockley.

Wulfnoth and his famous son Godwine are of course historic. The
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle tells us how the earl was driven into sullen
enmity with Ethelred by Streone's brother, and the Danish Sagas
record Godwine's first introduction by Jarl Ulf to Cnut after the
battle of Sherston.

As for the places mentioned in Redwald's story, the well on Caldbec
hill still has its terrors for the village folk, and the
destruction of the ancient mining village at Penhurst by the Danes
is remembered yet with strange tales of treasure found among its
stone buildings. The Bures folk still speak of the White Lady of
the Mere, and their belief that Boadicea lies under the great mound
is by no means unlikely to be a tradition of her true resting
place.

C. W. WHISTLER

STOCKLAND, Nov. 1896.

Chapter 1: The Coming Of The Vikings.

All along our East Anglian shores men had watched for long, and now
word had come from Ulfkytel, our earl, that the great f