A Thane of Wessex

because I knew not when I should see her again. But there is a wonderful magic in youth, and good hea

a name for myself, and so return in high honour by very force of brave deeds done, deeds that should be spoken of through all the land. It is a strange heart in a youth that cannot, or wil

as my reward at the end; so that I began to long to start my new life, and went o

hen I remembered a woodman's hut, deep in the combe, that would serve for shelter, keeping the wolves from me, as it kept them from the woodmen, who made it for the purpose -- the pl

ng the thick herbage. So I sat in the dark, eating my bread and cheese, and thinking how that I was like to make a poor wanderer if I thought not of things such a

I must long for the words of sooth to come true, that I might see revenge by other hands than mine. Then again must I think of hurt to Matelgar as of hurt to Alswythe, so that I d

gh waking, that told me that I

beat furiously, while a cold chill went over me with the start, and I sprang up and back, drawing my sword. And it was b

wolves; but at last I laughed at my fears, and began to look round the hut in the moonlight.

was heavy and dreamless, until the sun shone through the c

e birds were singing loudly, and a squirrel came and chattered at me, and then, running up a bough, sat up, still as if carved from the wood it was resting on, and watched me seemingly without fear. Then I went down the combe and sought a pool, and bathed, and ate the last of the food the

erse them once again, and so make to the headland, above Watchet and Quantoxhead on either side, and then down along the shore, always deserted there, to the hil

ver, my pride forbade me to ask in that way. Then, again, for a man so subsisting it might be hard to win a way to a great man's favour, though, indeed, a

ght, and sat there, with my back to an ash tree, while

tide, so that we might hardly see him from the strand. There went out three men in a little skiff to take him, having with them the young son of the owner of the boat. And in some way the boat was overturned, as they came back towing the stag after them, when some hundred or more yards from shore, a

ong hair and raised him above the water, while the man, his father, swam beside us, and we got saf

even to life itself, saying that he owed me both his own and the boy's. And that made me fain to laugh it away, being uneasy at his praise, w

my father's words, and knew that I was glad to have one friend whom I knew well enoug

ver pieces in my need. I knew he would welcome the chance of showing the honesty of his words, and might well afford it.

great gray cloud covered all the tops of the hills above me, and I thought

own, and my hair was longer than its wont; and when I had seen my face in the little pool that morning, I myself had started back from the older, bearded, and stern face that met me, instead of the fine, smooth, young looks that had been mine on the night of my last feast. But there were many at the Moot, which was even now

; and by the time the night fairly closed in, I stood on the heights above Watchet, and, look

's house, for I would not bring trouble on him by being seen. All the while I looked

r out in the open water another such flash answered it -- seen and gone in an instant. Then came four more such flashes, each a little nearer than the seco

an to creep in towards the haven, closer and closer, and as they did s

e in ships or boats; but not knowing why they were made, or why so many ships should be gathered off the

owed, for first one light and then another came into sight like the first two as they drew near. I knew not much about ships, but it seemed t

hey hide their lights?" for often had I seen the trading busses pa

was

ough voices -- a chant that set my blood spinning through me, and that started me to my feet, running with all the speed I could make

d the ringing of the church bell came to me for a little, and then that stopped, and up on Minehead height burnt out a war beacon that soon paled to nothing in the glare o

ds of the enemy, and I could only climb up the hill again, an

wild with fury against the plunderers, and against Matelgar, in that now I might not call o

called them all Danes without much distinction -- were the very

was a good thought; and I hurried to the point where I knew it was

last night's, I kindled the dry fern at its foot to windward, and up it blazed. Then

e the messengers who were bidden to fire the beacon. So I slipped aside into cover of its smoke, an

all, and were pant

eacon?" said one

"we shall have credit for mi

e first, "he s

interest they had left, or escaped fr

to flee; none to save goods. They mentioned certain names of the slain whom they had seen fall,

g off; but they did not know how many, and I could s

groups up the hill, weeping and groaning, and I knew there would soon be too many

laid me down and slept, while the smoke of Watchet hung round me, and now and then a brighter g

the eastward was sweeping the smoke, as I could see, away to the other hills, westward. But the town was gone -- only a smoke was left for all

ugh, and that those lights I saw were signs made from one to the other when that was so. There were specks near them -- moving -- their boats, no doubt, from the shore, bringing

but would have gone out westward with this tide. And therefore I wondered wh

andered among the bushes seeking more. As I did so, by and by, I came in sight of the beacon on the hilltop, and looking up at it, rather blaming my carelessness, saw that but two men were there

me, evidently not knowing me. I talked with them awhile, and then shared their breakfast with them, glad enough of it. They had, howev

w group came up, that the enemy was on their heels.

cooking fires, rose from their decks, and they were evidently in no hurry. Nor need they be. In those days

t flashed bright where the wind came over in flaws here and there. Then from each ship were unfurled great sails, striped in b

," said I, with

men shook

they will go about and so fetch the Wessex shore again

ed out, and limping with long running as it seemed. And when he saw me he ran stra

to Matelgar of Stert -- the levy is

hat onward. Yet -- to Matelgar -- and by an outlaw! B

said to the man, who had cast himse

id, glancing at me shar

utlaw," I

augh. "Outlaw in truth you

egar," I

prate not. If you were Ealhstan himself

thralls, "if it be true you are outlawed, as I heard

d away towards the spot where my enemy lay at Stert, and that honest thr

an prove my loyalty maybe -- but I have to bear this i

would feign lameness, and send

would, so that I was doing no wrong in being turned back, as it were, by emergency, from leaving the kingdom. Now, as I trotted swiftly along the track,

it, perhaps. Well, better with me than with the Danes, I thought, and so bestowed the bag inside my mail shirt, and thanked the

y the ships. They must have stretched far across to the Welsh coast. Onl

h this errand? But that was not my business; the war arrow must go round, and the be

o a little cluster of thralls' and churls' huts I knew. There were no people there, and one hut was burnt down. Afterwards I heard that they

nd my heart bounded within me -- for, indeed, unlooked for as

were I slain. Known was I by name to the messenger who gave me the arrow,

the hall, looking to meet with one at every turn, my heart beat thick e

lswythe and I had met, but it was empty. I knew that it must be

the outer palisade and