est pony, and another good
horse which he was wont to ride with my father at times. He did not
take the thane's own horse, as it would be known, and he would risk
no questions as to how he came by it.

Then we rode away by the back gate, and when the darkness closed on
us as we passed along the well-known road towards Chichester the
voices of the foe who revelled in our courtyard came loudly to us.
And I did but think it part of the rejoicing of that day as I
listened.

Through the warm summer rain we came before daylight had fully
broken to Bosham, not passing through Chichester, for the gates
would be closed. And just before the sun rose, Dicul the priest
came from his house to the little church and saw us sitting in the
porch, waiting him, while the horses cropped the grass on the
little green outside the churchyard, hobbled in forest fashion.

He bade us back to his house, and there I fell asleep straightway,
with the tiredness that comes suddenly to a child. And Owen and he
talked, and I know that he told him all that had happened and what
his own plans for me were, under the seal of secrecy. And then he
begged the good priest to tell me of my loss.

So it came to pass that presently Dicul took me on his knee and
told me wonderful stories of the martyrs of old time, and of his
own land in times that are not so far off; and when it seemed to me
that indeed there is nought more wonderful and blessed than to give
life for the faith, he told me how my father had fallen at the
hands of heathen men, and was indeed a martyr himself. I do not
know that he could have done it more wisely or sweetly, for half
the sting was lost in the wonder of it all.

But he did not tell me who it was had slain my father, and that I
did not know for many a long day.

After that we ate with him, and he gave us some little store for a
journey, and so Owen and I rode on again, westward, homeless
indeed, but in no evil case.

Now, as one may suppose, Owen's first thought was to get me beyond
the reach of Erpwald, whose mood might change again, from that in
which he let us go with what we would, to that in which he came on
us. So all that day we went on steadily, sleeping the night in a
little wayside inn, and pushing on again in the early morning,
until Owen deemed it safe for us to draw rein somewhat, and for my
sake to travel slowly.

At this time he had no clear plan in his head for the ending of our
journey, nor was there need t