the
struggle, which set the blood coursing in my veins again. Then I
got out the oars and began to pull away from the ship, with no care
for direction so long as I could get away from her.

The foe had no boat, for they were all clustered in the ship or
close to her on the rock, and there was a deal of noise going on
among them. When I was fairly out of their way, and I could no
longer make out their forms, I began to plan where I had best go,
and at first I thought of a little beach that I had seen on the far
side of the cove, thinking that I could get up what seemed a gorge
to the cliff's top, and so hide inland somewhere. But when I could
see right into the gorge, I found that it was steep and higher than
I thought. My foes would be able to meet me by the time I was at
the top.

There was no other place that I could see, for none could climb
from the foot of the cliffs elsewhere, since if he reached the
rocks he would have to stay where he leapt to them. So as there was
no help for it, I headed for the open sea. No doubt, I thought, I
should find some landing place along the coast before I had gone
far, and meanwhile I was getting a fair start of the enemy, who
would have to follow the windings of the cliffs if they cared to
come after me.

I pulled therefore for the eastern end of the cove, opposite to the
place where the ship lay, and so rounded the point and was out in
the open and tossing on the waves in a way that tried my rowing
sorely, for I am but a fresh-water boatman. Lucky it was for me
that there was little sea on, or I should have fared badly. Then I
pulled eastward, and against the tide also, but that was a thing
that I did not know.

The boat was wonderfully light and swift, and far less trouble to
send along than any other I had seen. There are no better
shipwrights than the Norsemen, and we Saxons have forgotten the
craft.

The terrible numbness passed off as I worked, but now the wind grew
cold, and the clouds were working up from the southwest quickly,
with wind overhead that was not felt here yet. I knew that I must
make some haven soon, or it was likely that I should be frozen on
the sea, but the great cliffs were like walls, and at their feet
was a fringe of angry foam everywhere. I could see no hope as yet.
Far away to the east of me a great headland seemed to bar my way,
but I did not think that I should ever reach it. And all the while
I looked to see the black forms of men on the cl