ey understood, England had been
completely conquered, Saxon warships should be entering a northern
fiord.

For many hours Edmund was carried through the forest. He wondered to
himself whether he would be slain on his arrival or kept as a slave,
for the Norse and Saxon tongues were so similar that he was perfectly
able to understand the language of his captors. A party of twelve men
accompanied him, four of whom bore the litter, and were relieved at
intervals by the others. After some hours the feeling of giddiness and
weakness passed off, and on the men stopping to change bearers he
expressed his readiness to walk.

Hitherto he had lain with his eyes closed, as he thought it better to
remain as he was until he felt perfectly able to keep up with his
captors in a journey which might, for aught he knew, be a long one. The
Northmen expressed their satisfaction at finding that their burden need
no longer be carried, and throwing aside the boughs which had formed
the litter, proceeded with him on their way. They asked him many
questions concerning the Dragon. Most of these he answered readily
enough, but he evaded those as to the place where she had been built,
or the port from which she had sailed. It was not until late in the
afternoon that they arrived at the abode of the Jarl Bijorn.

It was a rough abode constructed of timber, thatched with rushes, for
as yet the Northmen were scarcely a settled people, the tribes for the
most part wandering in the forests hunting when not engaged in those
warlike expeditions which they loved above all other things. Only the
leaders dwelt in anything like permanent abodes, the rest raising huts
of boughs at such places as they might make any stay at.

One of Edmund's conductors had gone on ahead, and as the party
approached the building Bijorn came out from his house to meet them. He
was, like almost all Northmen, a man of great stature and immense
strength. Some fifty years had passed over his head, but he was still
in the prime of his life; for the Northmen, owing to their life of
constant activity, the development of their muscles from childhood, and
their existence passed in the open air, retained their strength and
vigour to a great age.

So assiduous was their training, and so rapidly did their figures
develop in consequence, that at the age of fifteen a young Northman
received arms and was regarded as a man, although he did not marry
until many years afterwards, early wedlo