wise counsellor. Odin and Thor send that we may
meet again;" and Edwy with only a dozen followers rode out at full speed.

The Mercians had not yet reached that side of the camp, which was
concealed by woods which were clear of all enemies, and he rode on rapidly.

"What has become of Elfric, my Leofric?" he said to one of his faithful
train.

"I fear me he is dead: I saw him fall in the last struggle."

"Poor Elfric! poor Elfric! then his forebodings have come true; he will
never see his father again."

"It is all fortune and fate, and none can resist his doom, my lord,"
said Leofric.

"But Elfric; yes, I loved Elfric. I would I had never left that fatal
field."

"Think, my lord, of Elgiva."

"Yes, Elgiva--she is left to me and left all is left. Ride faster,
Leofric, I fancy I hear pursuers."

They had, at Cynewulf's suggestion, taken fresh horses from the reserve,
and had little cause to fear pursuit. In an hour they reached the Foss
Way and rode along the route described in our former chapter, until,
reaching the frontiers of the territory of the old Dobuni, they left the
Foss, and rode by the Roman trackway which we have previously described,
until they turned into a road which brought them deep into Oxfordshire.
Here they were in a territory which had been a debateable land between
Mercia and Wessex, where the sympathies of the people were not strongly
enlisted on either side and they were comparatively safe.

They passed Kirtlington; rested at Oxenford, then rode through
Dorchester and Bensington to Reading, whence they struck southward for
Winchester, where Edwy rested from his fatigue in the society of Elgiva.

So ended the ill-advised raid into Mercia.

CHAPTER XIX. EARTH TO EARTH, AND DUST TO DUST.

Although Edwy and his little troop had been successful in gaining the
main road, and in escaping into Wessex, yet few of his followers had
been so fortunate, and his broken forces were seeking safety and escape
in all directions, wanderers in a hostile country. A large number found
a refuge in the entrenched camp; but it was surrounded by the foe in
less than half-an-hour after the king's escape, and all ingress or
egress was thenceforth impossible.

While one large body fled eastward towards the Watling Street, the
soldiers who had accompanied the king to Aescendune naturally turned
their thoughts in that direction. It was, as they had seen, capable of a
long defence--well provisioned, and a