when it seemed to promise naught but ill, and I verily believe that
he thought the way of the Christian might be altogether different
from his. But I liked his second sight not at all, for of course we
Saxons know that when it is given it is not to be despised. My
father had many times told me of the like before I heard this.

After that I asked now and then if there was any danger to be
guarded against on the way to Fernlea, and I was told by all that
there was none. Hardly would a strong guard be needed, for the hand
of Offa was heavy on ill doers, and his land had peace from end to
end.

So then I began to think the portent altogether heathenish, and
half forgot it. And with that I hoped that Erling would not often
be taken in this way.

I rode with the Franks for an hour or two on their road back to
Norwich, homeward, and then took leave of them, riding back to
Thetford with Erling alone, for the king had but set the embassy as
far as the gates of the town. And as I watched them pass across the
heaths and at last disappear behind a hill, it seemed to me that I
had my life to begin afresh, for the days when I was one of the
paladins of King Carl of the Franks were past and done with. Many
were the lessons I had learned therein, and I have never regretted
those five years; and, best of all, in them I had been the friend
and close comrade of Ecgbert, who I know had then all the promise
of his greatness of the days to come.

CHAPTER VII. HOW ETHELBERT'S JOURNEY BEGAN WITH PORTENTS.

Seeing that Carl the Great was at this time, and I suppose always
will be, the model of what a king should be, Ethelbert had many
things to ask me of him, and out of the hours which he spent in
questioning me it came to pass that he took pleasure in my company
at other times as well, treating me as a close comrade. That sort
of thing is apt to be perilous in time, for it makes jealousies
about a court if there is favour for one more than for another of
the courtiers; but as I was no more than a passing stranger, who
had not the least intention of biding here, I escaped that. Nor do
I think that any one was jealous of me, for the honour which Carl
had set on me for the sake of Ecgbert hung about me, as it were,
and I suppose that half the court thought that I had to take some
message on to Offa from my late lord.

Moreover, for good and wise reasons of his own, Ethelbert had no
close companions of his own age, and maybe longed