ue. And more
she said, which I may not write. Then footsteps came up the main path,
and I must go.

I heard her singing as she went back to the hail in the evening light,
and knew that that was for my sake, and not for lightness of heart; and
so, when her voice died away, I plunged again into the woods, making
westward while light lasted.

CHAPTER V. THE VIKINGS ARRIVE.

Now after I had parted from Alswythe, my true love, I could not forbear
a little heaviness at first, because I knew not when I should see her
again. But there is a wonderful magic in youth, and good health, and
strength, and yet more in true love requited, which will charm a man
from any long heaviness. So before long, as I went through the twilight
woodlands towards the mighty Quantock hills, my heart grew light within
me; and I even dared to weave histories in my mind of how I would make a
name for myself, and so return in high honour by very force of brave
deeds done, deeds that should be spoken of through all the land. It is a
strange heart in a youth that cannot, or will not, do the like for his
future, and surely want of such thoughts will lead him to nothing great,
even if it does not bid him sink to the level of his own thralls, as I
have known men fall.

However, my heart was full of brave dreamings, always with the thought
of Alswythe as my reward at the end; so that I began to long to start my
new life, and went on swiftly that I might the sooner leave behind the
land that was to be closed to me.

Night fell as I came to the mouth of the long combe that runs up under
Triscombe where the road crosses, and to south of it, and I began to
wonder how I should lodge for the night. Then I remembered a woodman's
hut, deep in the combe, that would serve for shelter, keeping the wolves
from me, as it kept them from the woodmen, who made it for the purpose
--the place being far from any village, so that at times they would
bide there for nights when much work was on hand. None would be there in
Maytime, for the season for felling was long past.

So I found my way to the hut, and there built a fire, and then must, in
the dark, grope for a flint wherewith to strike light on steel, but
could not find one among the thick herbage. So I sat in the dark, eating
my bread and cheese, and thinking how that I was like to make a poor
wanderer if I thought not of things such as this. However, I thought my
wanderings would last no long time, and as the m