board hauled out, and setting sail with
much labour, for there were very few in each ship, stood off into mid
channel. Out of Severn they could not get, for the wind was westerly,
and the tide setting eastward, so at last they brought up in the lee of
the two holms, and there furled sail and lay at anchor.

Very stiff and sore were we when we had rested for a little, and there
fell a sadness on the levy, now that the joy of battle had gone, and the
cost of victory must be counted. And that was heavy, for so manfully and
steadily had the vikings fought that they had accounted for man to man
as nearly as one might count, either slain or maimed.

Now on this matter I heard Wislac speak to Aldhelm, who sat facing him,
and holding his aching head with both hands.

"So, friend," quoth Wislac, "as touching that matter of dispute we had.
How stands the account?"

"I know not, nor care," said Aldhelm. "All I wot is that my head is like
to split."

"Nay, that will it not, having stood such a stout blow," said Wislac,
laughing. "Cheer up, and count our score of heads."

"I can count but one head, and that my own. Let it bide."

"So, that is better," said Wislac. "I should surely have been slain five
times by my own count, but it seems I am wrong. Wherefore I must have
escaped somehow. And that is all I know about it."

Then he turned to me, and asked if I had noted any doings at all.

And when I thought, all I could remember plainly were the fall of the
tall chief I slew, and the coming of Ealhstan, and the attack of the
berserk, and no more; all the rest was confused, and like a dream. So I
said that it seemed to me that we had had no time to do more than mind
ourselves, but that withal my shield wall had kept the standard. And
that kept, there need be no question as to who had done best.

Then Wislac nodded, after his wont, and said that if Aldhelm was content
so was he.

Whereupon Aldhelm held out his hand, and said that Wislac was wise and
he foolish. And Wislac, grasping it, answered that it was a lucky
foolishness that had brought so stout a comrade to his side, for had it
not been for Aldhelm putting his thick head betwixt him and an axe,
slain he would have been.

"Aye, brother," he said, "deny it not, for I saw you thrust yourself
forward and save me by yourself, which doubtless is your way of settling
a grudge, brother, and a good one."

So those two were sworn friends from that day forward, as were many