he is at the point of consenting to become
Sweyn's bride."

"I think not that," Siegbert replied. "When Freda has once made up her
mind she is not given to change."

"I doubt not her resolution," Edmund said; "but none can blame her if,
after all these months, she has begun to despair of rescue; nay, it is
even probable that, having Sweyn, who is assuredly a brave and
enterprising Viking, always near her, she may have come to love him."

"No, Edmund," Siegbert replied. "I am sure you need have no fear that
she has softened towards Sweyn. But how do you think of proceeding if
you land?"

"I will take with me this Dane, and if one of the Genoese nobles will
go with me I will take him, and also the man we brought from
Marseilles, who acts as an interpreter between us and the Italians."

"But why hamper yourself with two men, who would be even more likely to
be detected by the Danes than would you yourself?"

"I shall leave them in the outskirts of the place," Edmund replied. "I
would fain see if I can enter into any negotiations with the natives.
Perhaps we may arrange that they shall attack the place on the land
side, while the Dragon falls upon the galleys, and in any case we may
need an interpreter with the people."

One of the young Genoese, upon being asked whether he would take part
in the adventure, at once consented, and the four men, attiring
themselves as Danes, speedily landed in the Dragon's boat. The bay in
which the ship was lying was some ten miles along the shore from the
town. The spies had made their way along the sea-coast by night, but as
it was morning when Edmund landed, he thought that it would be safer to
make a detour so as to arrive near the landward side of the town and so
enter it after dark.

They had not proceeded far when they came upon the ruins of a village.
It had been destroyed by fire, and the freshness of the charred beams
showed that it had been done but a short time before, probably not many
days. Marks of blood could be seen in the roadway, but no bodies were
visible, and Edmund supposed that, after the Danes had retired, the
survivors must have returned and buried their dead. They had not
proceeded far when the Dane pointed out to Edmund a half-naked lad who
was running with the swiftness of a deer over a slope of some little
distance.

"He is going too fast for us to catch him," Edmund said carelessly;
"and as, even if we did so, he could give us no information of any us