So we were in safety, for half a mile of this ground was safer than a wall behind us.  We went silently for a little while, save for a few words of caution here and there.  But at last Alswythe turned to me, and lifted her veil, smiling a little to me at last, and asking why we left the good roads for this wild place, for though we men were used to the like in hunting, she knew not that such places and paths could be, brought up as she was in the wooded uplands of our own corner of the country.

I told her how I was to make all speed to Glastonbury, and that this was the nearest road:  and she was content, being very trustful in both her protectors.  But then she asked if that place should be reached before dark, having little knowledge of places or distances.

Then I must needs tell how we were bound for that village where the hermit was, and Turkil of whom I had told her, seeing that it was over late to reach the town, but that there we hoped to come next day.  And she said she would fain see those two, “and maybe Grendel also,” smiling again a little to please me.  And I knew how much that little jest cost her to make, and loved her the more for her thought for me.  Then she was silent for a while.

Presently one of the men in the rear shouted, and there was a great splashing and snorting of horses, and we looked round.  One of the led horses had gone off the path and was in a bog, and that had set the rest rearing with fright.

So we had to halt, and Wulfhere gave his horse to Dudda to hold while he went back.  And that kept us for a while waiting, and then I could stand beside Alswythe for a little.

“I have seen the last of my outlaw, they tell me,” she said, wanting to learn how things were with me.

Yet I was still that, if only for loss of lands and place.  Though as Osric’s chosen messenger I had that last again for a little, because of his need.

So I told her that that matter must be settled by the Moot, but that Osric was my friend, and that while I bore his ring at least none might call me “outlaw”.  And at that she was glad, and told me that if she saw Leofwine the hermit she would tell him that his words were coming true.  Then she looked hard at me, and said that she had heard from her aunt why Osric so trusted me, and that she was proud of Heregar.  And I said that I had but done the things that someone had to do, and which came in my way, as it seemed to me, wherein I was fortunate.

At that she smiled at me, seeming to think more of the matter than that, and so talked of other things.  Yet she must needs at last come to that which lay nearest her heart, and so asked me if I had seen her father fall.

And I was glad to say that I had not; adding that it was near Combwich Hill, as I had heard, and close to where Osric the Sheriff fought.

So I think that all her life long she believed him to have fallen fighting in the first line, where Osric was, with his face to the enemy; for all men spoke well of the sheriff’s valour that day, and none would say more than I told her.  Yet it may have been that the thane fought well, unobserved, in that press, and there is perhaps little blame to many who fly in a panic.