l himself who bade Ecgbert wait for
that day, but it is likely. The atheling was in no haste to return
to England, and it was his word that until he was needed he should
bide here and learn.

But when the time went on he had thought for me, and one April day,
as we rode together, he bade me go home and see that all was well
with my folk. I had some fever on me at that time, for we were
among the Frisian marshlands, and it had fallen on me when I was
weak from the wound I spoke of, so that I could not shake it off.
It came every third day, and held me in its grip for the afternoon,
cold as ice, and then hot as fire, and so leaving me little the
worse, but always thin and yellow to look on. Moreover, it always
seemed to come on the wrong day for me, when I needed to be most
busy, so that over and over again Ecgbert had to ride out without
me. There were plenty more of us in the same case that year, when
we were hunting Frisian heathen rebels to their strongholds in
their fens.

"I must lose you in one way or the other, comrade," Ecgbert said.
"Either you will die here, which is the worst that could befall
you, or else you must go home to England. Now there is a fair
chance for you, for Carl is sending some messengers with presents
to the young King of East Anglia, who has yet to be crowned. Go
with them, and take him greetings from me."

But before I could bring myself to agree to parting from him he had
to put this before me in many ways, for I could not bear to leave
him. And at last he laid his commands on me that I must go. He said
it was time that he had a friend who knew his hopes in England,
watching how matters went for him, and that I could best do it. So
there was no way out of it, and I had to go.

And when I knew that, there woke in me the longing for England
which lies deep in the heart of every one of her sons, wheresoever
he may be across the seas, and the days were weary before Carl's
messengers should sail. I think that Ecgbert envied me, with the
same longing on him; but one could only know it from his silences,
or from the way in which he would talk to me of all that I should
see again.

Two days before we sailed I was sent for by Carl himself; which was
an honour indeed for me. Very kindly he thanked me for past
services, as if I had not rather served Ecgbert than himself; and
he gave me new arms of the best from head to foot, and a heavy bag
of gold moreover, that I might not say that Carl the