hief, slew, and of Humbert the
bishop, and many more lesser folk. Tell me truly how much you have
thought of the Asir in these last years?"

But none answered. It was with them as with me: the Asir were not
of England.

"One thing," said Guthrum, "has gone against our taking up the
English faith--we have thought the words of peace have made men
cowardly. Now we know that is not so. Here is one who withstood
Hubba, and round the walls watch Christian men who have beaten us
sturdily."

Then he stayed his words for a little, and his voice sank, and he
looked round and added:

"Moreover, the words of the new faith are good. I will accept King
Alfred's brotherhood altogether."

Then one or two more of the younger chiefs spoke, and said that
they would do so also; but again the elder warrior spoke fiercely.

"Is this forced on us as part of the peace making?"

"It is not," I answered. "It is, as I have said, the wish for
brotherhood altogether."

Then said Guthrum:

"That is enough. I do not think that we need be ashamed to be
conquered altogether by King Alfred."

"One more word," said the old chief. "Are we to have no hostages?"

"There can be no exchange of hostages," said Osmund.

"Things are all on the side of the Saxon," he growled.

"Ay, they are, in more ways than that," said Guthrum. "We have no
power to say a word. It is in my mind that we could not have looked
for such mildness at the king's hands. For there is no denying that
we are at his mercy.

"What say you, as a stranger, Ranald?"

"I have known the ways of Harald of Norway," I answered. "I think
that he would not have left a man of this host alive."

Whereon the old warrior laughed shortly, and was silent while
Guthrum bade us go back to Alfred and thank the king for his word,
saying that an answer should be given as soon as the word of the
host had been taken in open Thing.

So Alfred won Guthrum to the faith, and greatly did he rejoice when
he heard what the Danish king had said. I think he was more glad
yet when he knew that Osmund would become Christian also, and he
urged us both to be baptized at once.

"Let us be so with Guthrum," I asked.

"That will be fitting," he answered, "for I think you have won him
over."

But I hold that Guthrum and more of his chiefs had been won by the
deaths of those martyrs of whom he spoke long before the choice was
set before him. One cannot tell how this was wrought in the mind of
the Danes