es and the Roman legions alike, I had time to look
around me at my own following, being conscious in some way that, mixed
up as it were with the war song, there had been the sound of the droning
of a chant as by monks close by me. And I could see no monks near. The
thanes were riding round and after the bishop, who came next me as I led
the way with the standard, and Ealhstan indeed had on his robes; but
there was a stiffness about him, and a glint of steel also, when a
breeze shifted the loose fold of his garments, that seemed to say that
his was not all peaceful gear.

Just behind me, as I rode with Wulfhere and Wislac to right and left,
came my six men, big powerful housecarles, all in black armour and
carrying red and black shields, and with a red cross on their helms'
fronts. And the squarest of these six, he who seemed to be their leader,
looked up at me, when I turned again, with a grin that I seemed to know.
So I took closer notice of him, and lo! it was Guthlac, the reader of
Beowulf, and the other five were his brethren. Small wonder that I had
not recognized the holy men in their war gear, so little looked they
like the peaceful brethren who had walked in the abbey cloisters.

With them was my collier, keeping step and holding himself with the best
of them, and I thought that they would be seven hardy Danes who should
overmatch my standard guard. So I was well content with the bishop's
choice for me.

Now of that march to Brent, and the meeting there with the Somerset
levy, there is no need to tell. But by the time we marched from thence
against the Danes, there were five hundred men of Dorset, and near nine
hundred of Somerset. Of the Danes some judged that there would be eight
hundred or more, but if that was so, they were tried men, and our
numbers were none too great. Moreover, we must separate, so as to drive
them down to their ships, for they were spread over the country, burning
and destroying on every side.

We lay but one night on Brent, while the leaders held counsel, and even
as we sat gathered, we could see plainly the fires the Danes had lit, of
burning hamlet and homestead, far and wide across the marshes of Parret.
And the end of that council was that Eanulf should take his Somerset men
up Parret valley, and so drive down the Danes, while Ealhstan should
fall on them by Bridgwater as they came down, and so scatter them.

Therefore would the Somerset levy march very early, before light; whil