第 19 页

The meeting at once broke up.

"I suppose you young warriors will bring your own men to Salisbury?" Harold

said, as Wulf and Beorn came up to take their leave of him.

"Certainly, my lord," Beorn said. "We have neither family nor relations to

keep us at home, and even if we had it would not suffice to keep us from

following your banner."

"It will be a warfare like that in which you have been engaged across the

sea," Harold said. "The Bretons you there fought with are kinsfolk of the

Welsh, speaking the same language, and being alike in customs and in

fighting. They trust to surprises, and to their speed of foot and

knowledge of their wild country, rather than to hard fighting in the open

plain. They have few towns to capture, and it is therefore hard to execute

reprisals upon them. Like the Bretons they are brave, and fight savagely

until the last, neither giving nor asking for quarter. They believe that

their country, which is so wild and hilly as to be a great natural

fortress, is unconquerable, and certainly neither Saxon nor Dane has ever

succeeded in getting any foothold there. But when the spring comes I hope

to teach them that even their wild hills are no defence, and that their

habits of savage plundering must be abandoned or we will exterminate them

altogether. But I have no thought of undertaking such a campaign now. Of

course you will take that tall follower of yours with you, Wulf."

"I fear that he would not stay behind even if I ordered him to do so," Wulf

laughed. "He will be overjoyed when I tell him there is a prospect of

fighting again, and all the more if it is against kinsmen of the Bretons,

against whom he feels a special grudge."

"The feeling would be more natural the other way," Harold said smiling,

"seeing that he inflicted upon them far greater damage than he received.

You will find fresh horses awaiting you. None of those that carried us from

Bosham yesterday are fit for another such journey to-day."

Wulf had told Osgod the first thing in the morning that he could return to

his family for a few days, only coming to the palace to serve his meals,

and he now hurried away to the armourer's shop, where he found that but

little work was going on, the men being absorbed in listening to Osgod's

account of his adventures. Ulred and the men rose and saluted respectfully

as Wulf entered.

"I am sorry to disturb you, Ulred," he said, "but I have come to fetch

Osgod away again. That is if he would prefer riding with me to remaining

quiet with you at home."

"If you are going, master, assuredly I am going with you," Osgod said. "I

am dry with talking already, and father must wait for the rest of my story

until I come back again. Are we going down to Steyning, my lord?"

"There first and afterwards elsewhere, but that is all I can tell you now.

The horses are ready, and there is not a moment to lose. We must get as far

on our way as possible before nightfall, for the matter is an urgent one."

"I am ready," Osgod said, girding on his sword and putting his cap on his

head. "Good-bye, father. Tell mother I shall be back when I am back, and

that is all I can say about it."

They reached Steyning at two o'clock on the following afternoon, and

messengers were instantly sent round to the farms, bidding the men who were

bound as housecarls to appear on horseback and armed, with two days' food

in their wallets, an hour before daybreak next morning. Then a messenger

was despatched with a letter to the prior of Bramber, telling him of Wulf's

safe return, and begging him to excuse his coming over to see him, as he

had ridden nigh a hundred and fifty miles in three days, and was forced to

set out again at daybreak the next morning. As Wulf had hoped, the letter

was answered by the prior in person, and to him Wulf related that evening

the incidents of their stay in Normandy.

The prior shook his head.

"I have feared ever since I heard that Harold had fallen into the clutches

of the duke, that he would never get off scot free, but would either have

to pay a heavy ransom or make some concessions that would be even worse for

England. It is a bad business, Wulf, a bad business. The church has ever

been ready to grant absolution from oaths extracted by violence, but this

affair of the relics makes it more serious, and you may be sure that

William will make the most of the advantage he has gained. Harold is

absolutely powerless to fulfil his oath. Neither he nor the king, nor any

other man, can force a foreign monarch upon free England. And did Harold

declare for the Duke of Normandy, powerful and beloved as he is, he would

be driven into exile instantly. If he himself is elected king by the

people, as there is no doubt whatever will be the case, he must needs obey

their voice, and will have no choice between being King of England or an

exile. Still it is unfortunate. He will be branded as a perjurer William's

influence may even induce the pope to excommunicate him, and although the

ban would go for but little here, it would serve as an excuse for the other

great earls to refuse to submit to his authority. Now tell me, how is it

that you have to ride again so suddenly when but just arrived?"

"I can tell you, father, though I can tell no one else. Harold has ordered

us to bring out our housecarls, and with them he means to deal a blow

against the Welsh, who have been devastating our western counties. The

expedition is to be secret and sudden, although against what point and in

what manner the blow is to be struck Harold has kept his own counsel."

"The Welsh are ever a thorn in our side," the prior said, "and treaties

with them are useless. I trust that Harold will succeed in thoroughly

reducing them to obedience, for whenever there is trouble in the kingdom

they take advantage of it, and are ready to form alliances with any

ambitious earl who hoists the standard of revolt. And so you say Harold has

already made you full thane? I am well pleased to hear it, if for no other

reason than that it is good for people when they are ruled over by their

own lord and not by a stranger; though I say nothing against Egbert,

Harold's steward. Still no man can rule like the master himself."

At the first dawn of day Wulf mounted, and rode away from the palace

followed by Osgod. He was clad now in the ringed armour, a suit of which he

had had made of lighter material than usual. Only on the shoulders and over

the chest was the leather of the usual thickness, elsewhere it was thin and

extremely soft, and the rings did not overlap each other as much as usual.

The weight, therefore, was much less than that ordinarily worn by thanes,

although it differed but little from it in appearance. The helmet, also,

was of stout leather, thickly covered with metal rings, and the flap fell

down over the neck and ears, having a bar coming down in front to protect

the nose.

Osgod's suit was thicker and heavier, and was similar to that of the forty

men who were drawn up in two lines under the soldier whom Harold had sent

down to train them. They were a stout set of young fellows, well mounted

and armed, and as they broke into a cry of "Welcome to our thane," Wulf

felt proud to command such a body.

"Thanks, my friends," he said heartily. "I am glad to see that not one is

missing from your number, and feel sure that you will do credit to my

banner."

They rode that day to Fareham, where they received a hearty welcome from

Beorn, and starting in the morning with his troop of thirty men, reached

Salisbury late that evening. They were met at the entrance to the town by

one of Harold's officers, who conducted them to a large barn, where straw

had been thickly strewn for the men to sleep on. The horses were fastened

outside.

"Earl Harold arrived an hour since," the officer said, "and bade me tell

you that he is lodged at the reeve's, where he expects you."

They found on arriving at the house that many of the thanes had already

come in, and that some six hundred horsemen were bestowed in the town. On a

great sideboard were pies, cold joints of meat, wine and ale, and each

thane as he arrived helped himself to such food as he desired, and then

joined the party gathered round Harold.

"We shall pick up another hundred or two as we march along to-morrow,"

Harold was saying when the two young thanes joined the group, "and shall

have a good nine hundred men by the time we reach Gloucester, where I

expect to find four or five hundred more awaiting us. I hear that our

coming has made a great stir here in Salisbury, the citizens do not know

what to make of so large a body of housecarls arriving in their midst. The

reeve tells me that they were in some fear of being eaten out of house and

home until they heard that we were to march on in the morning; after that

they did their best for us, and have arranged that every man shall have his

fill of meat and ale to-night, and again before starting."

Travelling as fast and as far as the horses could carry them, the force

reached Gloucester. Here they received an even warmer welcome than had

greeted them elsewhere, for the citizens had been greatly alarmed at the

Welsh forays, and as soon as they knew that the great earl himself was with

the troops they had no doubt that he had come to give them protection and

to punish their enemies. The contingents from Somerset and Dorset had

already arrived, and without the delay of a single day the troops again

started.

The housecarls, although mounted, were not trained to fight on horseback.

Their steeds were valuable only as enabling them to move with greater

celerity across the country than they could do on foot, and to bring them

fresh and in fighting condition to the scene of action. Once there they

dismounted, and a portion being told off to look after the horses, the main

body advanced on foot against the enemy.

There was yet a long ride before them. Following the Severn on its western

side so as to avoid the passage of the Avon, they rode to Worcester, and

then up through Dudley and Shrewsbury.

It would have been shorter to have passed through Hereford and Ludlow, but

Harold feared that they might there come upon some marauding party of the

Welsh, and any of these who escaped might carry the news across the border,

when the fleet-footed mountaineers would quickly have conveyed it to the

Welsh king at his castle at Rhuddlaw. Rhuddlaw, now a small village, is

situated in Denbighshire, and was an important military position, situated

as it was at no great distance from the sea, and commanding the Vale of

Clwyd, the most important avenue into Wales from the north. From Shrewsbury

they pushed forward as rapidly as possible to Rhuddlaw; but quickly as they

had journeyed, the news of their coming was borne more rapidly. Griffith

received the news an hour before their arrival, and mounting, rode down to

the Avon and embarked on board ship.

Great was the disappointment of the earl and his followers when they found

that the object of their long march across England had failed, and that the

capture of the Welsh king, which would have put an end to the trouble, had

been missed so narrowly. The castle was at once set on fire, the Welsh

ships on the Avon were also given to the flames, and the very same day

Harold led his troops away and by easy marches took them back to

Gloucester. Here they halted. The housecarls from the south, who had never

been in contact with the Welsh, were inclined to murmur among themselves at

having been led back without striking a blow, but the contingents from the

western counties, who had had experience of this wild warfare, told them

that they might consider themselves fortunate.

"You know not what a war with these savages is," an old housecarl who had

fought them again and again said to a listening group of Wulf's men. "You

might as well fight with the evil spirits of the air as with them. Fight!

there is no fighting in it, save when they have with them Danes from the

North, or Norwegians. With these to bear the brunt of the battle the Welsh

will fight valiantly in their fashion, but alone they know that they cannot

withstand us for a moment. I have been after them a score of times, and it

is a night-mare. You go up hills and through forests, you plunge into

morasses, you scramble up precipices; you are wet, you are hungry, you are

worn out, but never do you catch sight of one of them.

"Now and then, as you wind along the face of a hill, rocks will come

thundering down; in the woods and swamps you hear their mocking yells and

laughter. At the end of the day you drop down where you halt, and then just

as you fall off to sleep there is a wild yell, and in a moment they are

swarming among you, slashing and ripping with their long knives, crawling

on the ground and springing upon you, getting among the horses and

hamstringing or cutting them open. By the time those of you that are alive

have got together they have gone, and all is so quiet that were it not for

the scattered bodies you might believe that it was all a dream. Two or

three times before morning the attack will be repeated, until you are

forced to keep under arms in military array. As soon as it is light you

recommence your march, and so it goes on day after day, until at last,

worn-out and spent, and less in strength by half than when you started, you

gather under the shelter of the walls of one of the border towns.

"I should have been glad indeed if we had caught their king, for if he had

been held hostage in London we might have had peace; but well content am I

that Harold has abstained from entering upon a campaign which, terrible as

it is even in summer, would be beyond endurance of the strongest in

winter."

"Well, for my part," Osgod, who was one of the listeners, remarked, "I

would rather go on by myself and take the chance of getting a good blow at