the other day, and
soon once more we were side by side on the old seat; and she was blaming
me, tenderly, for my rashness. Yet she knew not that it was I who had
brought the arrow, and her one fear was that I had joined those Danes.
And when I looked at her, I saw that she had been sorely troubled, and
this was the cause, for she said:

"I knew that you, my Heregar, would not fight against your own land, and
so they would surely slay you."

So will a woman see the truth of things often more clearly than a man.
For that the vikings might call on me to fight my Saxon kin had, till
last night, never crossed my mind, yet after Charnmouth fight it was
like enough.

Then she asked what brought me here, and I told her that, seeing the
burning of Watchet, I had a mind to join the levy, if I could, and so
fight both for country and for her. That was true enough as my thoughts
ran now--and surely I was not wrong in leaving out the story of the
errand with the war arrow, for that would have told her of her father's
lust for my destruction.

Then she wept lest I should fall, but being brave and thoughtful for my
honour, and for my winning back name and lands, bade me do so if I
could, cheering me with many fond and noble words, so that I wondered
that such a man as I could have won the love of such a woman as she.

Now the time was all too short for me to tarry long: but before I went,
Alswythe would bring me out food and drink that I might go well
strengthened and provided. And as I let her go back to the hall, I asked
her the name of that old warrior to whom she spoke, for it was he, I
told her, who had tried to help me before the Moot.

And then I was sorry I had told her that, for she might ask him of the
matter and hear more than was good for her peace of mind; but it was
done, and nothing could recall it.

Yet she did not notice it then, but said his name was Wulfhere, and that
he was a stranger from Glastonbury, as she thought, lately come into her
father's service. She was going then, and I asked her to let me have
speech with him, as I thought it safe, if he were to be trusted, for I
needed his advice in some things.

She said she would sound him first, not knowing how he had seen me
already, of course, and so went quickly away towards the hall.

What I needed the old man for was but to try to repair my slip of the
tongue, and warn him of my love's ignorance of her father's unfaith to
me; but as it fell out, it