unless it were to receive some chiefs of the Iceni, whose bones
were gone had they ever been there, for there was a stone chamber
in the mound's heart, fitted with stone seats and stone beds, as it
were, and four people might well live in that place, for it was
cool in summer and warm in winter, but very silent.

I spoke not a word till we were in the sunshine again, and then I
shivered.

"I could not have entered that place alone," I said.

"Gunnhild had no fear thereof, nor had I as a little child. Three
times we bided there for days, while the Danes pillaged and burnt
all around us, and were safe."

It was some old secret handed down to Gunnhild that had taught her
how to find the passage entrance. But she knew not where the great
queen lay. Maybe her resting place is below the mound itself, or
maybe she lies elsewhere, as some say.

Then said I:

"Let us close the place. I pray that none may need it again."

So I loosened the earth above with my spear butt and it fell and
covered the doorway. And none, save Hertha and myself, know where
its place is.

Yet men say that they see the bale fires burning even now, on the
mound top on the nights when men look for such things. I have never
seen them.

There are two men of whom I must say a word, for I love them well.
One is Father Ailwin, our priest, and my old master--who bides here
with Oswin, whom I prayed to stay with us also--growing old
peacefully; and the other is Elfric the abbot, my friend ever, and
now Cnut's best adviser. Each in his own way fills well the place
that is his, one as the counsellor and friend of plain folk like
ourselves, winning the love and reverence of thane, and franklin,
and thrall alike; and the other as the wisest in the land maybe,
high in honour with all the highest in church and state. Well have
those two wrought, and we cannot do without their like, whether in
village or court.

It is likely that Elfric will be archbishop ere long, and that will
be well for us all. So great is the name of Cnut the king that
hereafter it will be that all that was wrought of wisdom in his
time will be laid to his account; but he would not have it so, for
he knows what he owes to Elfric. But also I think that the cruel
deeds wrought by the jarls while he was yet but a child will be
thought his work also, for men will forget how young he was when
the crown came to him, seeing that in utmost loyalty the jarls
spoke of him ever as commanding,