ng of England all that I had learned, and he
was troubled. Only we three were in his council chamber, and to us
he spoke freely.

"What can I do? Much I fear that East Anglia must fight her own
battles at this time. Pressed am I on the west by Welsh and Dane,
and my Wessex men have their hands full with watching both. And it
is hard to get men of one kingdom to fight alongside those of
another, even yet. And this I know full well, that until a host
lands I can gather no levy, for our men will not wait for a foe
that may never come."

I knew that his words were true, and could say nothing. Only I
thought that it had been better if we had held to our Mercian
overlords in Ecgberht's time than fight for this Wessex sovereign
who was far from us; for that unhealed feud with Mercia seemed to
leave us alone now.

"Yet," said Ethelred, "these men are not such great chiefs, as it
seems. Maybe their threats will come to naught."

But I told him of that great gathering at the sacrifice, and said
also that I thought that needs must those crowded folks seek riches
elsewhere than at home. Then he asked me many things of the corn
and cattle and richness of the land; and when I told him what I had
seen, he looked at me and Ingild.

"Such things as crowding and poverty and hardness drove us from
that shore hither. I pray that the same be not coming on us that we
brought to the ancient people the Welsh, whose better land we took
and now hold."

So we left him, and I could see that the matter lay heavily on his
mind.

In a week thereafter I rode away homeward, and came first to
Framlingham, where Eadmund our own king was. Very glad was he to
see me safely home again.

"Now am I, with good Ingild your other godfather, in Elfric's place
toward you," he said; "think of me never as a king, but as a
father, Wulfric, my son."

And he bade me take my place as Thane of Reedham, confirming me in
all rights that had been my father's. With him, too, was the great
earl, and he begged my forgiveness for his doubt of me, though he
was proud that his strange manner of finding truth was justified.
Good friends were Ulfkytel and I after that, though he knew not
that in my mind was the thought of Osritha, to whom he had, as it
were, sent me.

Now every day brought fear to me that Ingvar's host was on its way
overseas to fall on us. And this I told to Eadmund and the earl,
who could not but listen to me. Yet they said that the peace
between