ge, that floated there, and ate and drank with the other
chiefs, and waited. But my mind was full of what I had heard, and
the war talk went on round me without reaching my ears.

Chapter XI. The Winning of "The Raven."

Now we none of us like much to speak of the fight that came next
morning, for it went ill enough. Yet we were outnumbered by twice
our force, for some more of the host beyond the fens made Alfred
send many of his men back to watch the crossing at Bridgwater.

Hubba brought his ships up on the tide, and when he saw that we
were waiting for him, he made as if to go on up the river; and we
began to move from our position, thinking that he would go and fall
on the town. Then, very suddenly, he turned his ships' bows to the
bank at the one place where he saw that the land was high almost to
the river's edge; and before we knew that we must be there to stay
him, his men were ashore, and had passed the strip of marsh, and
were on a long, gentle rise that ends in Cannington hill and the
Combwich fort, half a mile away.

We fought well for an hour, and then our men began to give on
either wing, for they were, as I would have it remembered, raw
levies that Odda had brought with him--valiant men and strong, but
with no knowledge of how to fight in line or how to hold together.
And when a force like that begins to go, it is ended.

Hard fought we in the centre after that. There were the Athelney
thanes, and my fifty men, and Odda's Exeter and Taunton townsfolk,
who had fought before; but when the wings broke, Hubba's great
force of veterans lapped round us, and we had nought left us but to
cut our way out, and make the best retreat we could. My men shouted
as they struck, in our Norse way; but a deadly silence fell on the
Saxons, and I thought that, as they grew quiet, their blows became
ever more stern and fell, until at last even Hubba's vikings gave
way before the hard-set faces and steadfast eyes of the
west-country spearmen, whom no numbers seemed to daunt, and they
drew back from us for a space.

Then we were clear of them, and at once Ethelnoth closed in on the
king, taking his horse's rein, and praying him to fly to
Bridgwater, where a stand could be made. And at last he persuaded
him, and they turned. Then fearing that this might set the example
for general flight, I spoke to Odda, and we shouted to the men to
stand fast and hold back pursuit; and so a guard of some fifty
thanes went with Alf