ve her her joy; it were cruel to spoil it, and maybe she
will never know her mistake."

So we rode on, and Heregar called Dudda, asking him if he knew
Denewulf's cottage; while in the track stood the witch, blessing
her king as eagerly as she had cursed her gossip just now.

"I know not the path, though I have heard of the cottage," Dudda
said; "but it will be strange if I cannot find a way to the place."

He took us carefully into the fen for some way until we passed
through a thicket and came to the edge of a mere, and there were
five men who bore fishing nets and eel spears, which had not been
used, as one might suppose, seeing that the ice was nigh a foot
thick after the thaw and heavy frost again.

And those two men who came first were Ethelnoth, the Somerset
ealdorman, and young Ethered of Mercia. It was strange to see those
nobles bearing such burdens; but we knew that we had found the
king.

They saw us, and halted; but Heregar waved his hand, and they came
on, for they knew him. It would be hard to say which party was the
more pleased to meet the other.

"Where is the king?" we asked.

"Come with us, and we will take you to him," Ethered said. "But
supperless you must be tonight. We have nought in the house, and
nothing can we catch."

Then I was surprised, and said:

"Is it so bad as that here? In our land, when the ice is at its
thickest we can take as much fish as we will easily."

"Save us from starvation, Ranald," said Ethered, laughing ruefully,
"and we will raise a big stone heap here in your honour."

"Kolgrim will show you," I said; "let me go to the king."

"I am a great ice fisherman," said Harek; "let me go also."

Then Heregar laughed in lightness of heart.

"Ay, wizard, go also. There will be charms of some sort needed
before Ethered sees so much as a scale."

Whereon they dismounted, and Kolgrim took his axe from his saddle
bow, asking where the river was, while he wondered that such a
simple matter as breaking a hole in the ice and dropping a line
among the hungry fish, who would swarm to the air, had not been
thought of. We had not yet learned that such a winter as this comes
but seldom to the west of England, and the thanes knew nothing of
our northern ways.

Then Ethelnoth led Heregar and me across twisting and almost unseen
paths, safer now because of the frost, though one knew that in some
places a step to right or left would plunge him through the crust
of hard snow i