t in such wise that he will not care to pass it
without retaking it. He will not know how few of us will be there,
and you will be able to choose your own ground for the fighting
while he bethinks him. There is but one road into Wessex across the
Quantocks, and we shall seem to menace that while we cover the way
to Watchet."

"So the camp is held?" asked Ina. "Gerent is before me there."

"Held by the men we beat off from Watchet, King. One we took tells
us that they had no business to fall on our town, but turned aside
to do it. Gerent has little hold on some of his chiefs. Now they
are there with a fear of us and our axes on them, and if we may
fall on them unawares we can take the camp without trouble, as I
think."

"Oswald," said Ina, after a little thought, "how many horsemen can
you raise now?"

The town was full of horses by this time, and I thought that it
would not be hard to raise a hundred, and that in half an hour.
Maybe if we did go with Thorgils we should meet many more men on
the way to the levy also.

"Then you shall go with Thorgils," the king said. "It is a risk,
certainly, but it is worth it. We had held that camp, had we had
but a day's earlier warning, and that loss may be made good thus.
That outlaw of yours will know many a safe place of retreat for you
if need is. Good luck be with you."

He shook hands with us both, and we did not delay. His only bidding
was that we should hold the camp until we had word from him, if we
took it, and he was to learn thereof by signal.

So it came to pass that in an hour and a half Thorgils and I and
Erpwald, who would by no means let me go without him, and three of
his Sussex friends, rode across the causeway to the Polden hills in
the dusk, with a matter of six score men behind us, well armed and
mounted all--for these borderers have need to keep horse and arms
of the best, and those ever ready.

From the ealdorman's door Elfrida watched us go very bravely, and
the glimmer of her white dress was the lodestar that kept the eyes
of her lover turned backward while it might be seen. It vanished
suddenly, and he heaved a deep sigh, and I knew that she had been
fain to watch no longer lest her tears should be seen.

As we went along the Polden ridge we met flying men, and men who
came to the levy, and by twos and threes we added to our little
force, until we had a full hundred more than when we started.

Thorgils took us to a tidal ford that crosses the