k his head.

"Some day it will end," he said, "but not in my time or yours--not
until the Danes have grown to know that England is their home, and
that they are English by birth and right of time--maybe not till
Denmark has ceased to send forth the sons for whom she has no place
in her own borders."

Then I answered that perhaps he was right. I did not see into
things as far as he, and I was a stranger in the land.

"But this at last will give a strong overlord to England," I said.

"Ay, for the time. So long as a strong king rules, there will be
less trouble indeed; but if Alfred's sons are weak, it will begin
afresh. England will no longer bear two kings; and while there is a
Saxon kingdom alongside a Danish, there cannot be lasting peace."

Then I said:

"What of yourself? Shall you go back to Guthrum when this is over?"

"I cannot tell," he answered. "What my fate is I know not yet. What
mean you to do if all goes well for Alfred? Shall you bide in
England?"

We had walked apart now, and were looking over all the fair
Quantock vale beneath us. I think there is no fairer lookout in all
England: land and river and hills and sea, and beyond the sea the
blue mountains of the Welsh coast--ever changing and ever beautiful
under sun and cloud and flying shadows.

"I have found the fairest land under the northern sun," I said;
"and I have found the best king, as I think. I shall bide here. One
other thing I have found of which I hardly dare to think, so many
are the chances of wartime. Yet, jarl, but for them I should not
have met with Thora, though in my heart I believe that I should not
have spoken to her yet."

"I would not have had it otherwise," he said, kindly taking my arm.
"I have seen what was coming long before Etheldreda spoke. It has
been good for Thora that she did so, whatever befalls."

Then we spoke of my promised place with the king, as if his victory
were certain. Indeed, I believe that we both had no thought of its
being otherwise.

"I do not know, however," said Osmund, "if your taking a Danish
wife will be well received. It may be likely that Alfred will wish
you to be bound to him by some tie of that nearness which shall be
of his making."

I had not thought of that, but it was a thing that was common
enough. Harald Fairhair was wont to give a rich wife to some chief
whom he would keep at his side.

"If that is so, I shall go hence," I said. "There are things that
come before friend