Then Eric hailed us, and Thorgils ran out his oars, and we went alongside the Danish ship.  And at that time Nona came from the cabin, and called me, looking wonderingly at the arrows that littered the deck at her feet.

“Oswald, what is it all?—­Do the good Danes leave us?”

Then she saw my mail, and paled a little.

“Fighting! and I not with you?” she cried.  “Is any one hurt?”

But I went to her side and told her how things had gone, asking her to bide in the shelter yet, for we had things to see that were not for her.  And so she went back again and closed the door, being assured that the danger had passed.

We went on board the Danish ship, for there was not enough sea to prevent our lying gunwale to gunwale for a moment.  Both Owen and I would find out if possible how all this came about.  There was a row of captives on the deck of the enemy waiting question, and I looked down on them from beside Eric.

Swarthy men and black haired they were, speaking no tongue which we knew, and one of them was black as his hair.  I had never seen a black man before, and he seemed uncanny.  The Danes were staring at him also, and he was grinning at them with white teeth through thick lips in all unconcern.  Many of these men had chains on their legs, and this black among them.

“Chained to the oar benches they were, poor thralls,” Eric said.  “We could not bide that, so we cut them free.  Then they fell on their lords and rent them.”

Owen shuddered.  He had seen the southern galleys before, and knew why no man was left alive of the foreigners who had fought.  Our kin do not slay the wounded.  But there were some Britons left among the captives, and one of them cried to Owen by name for mercy.

We had that man on board the Dane and questioned him, and learnt all.  He had no reason to hide aught when he was promised safety.

Daffyd had heard that we were to cross from Tenby, having had all the doings of Owen spied upon since the winter.  Then he learned that when I came over Owen was to return, and therefore he had my doings watched also.  He hired this foreign ship in Marazion, where she put in for trade just as he was wondering how to compass our end on the journey, promising her fierce crew gold of his own and all plunder there might be, if they would help him to an easy revenge.  So they came into the Severn sea, and lay for a fortnight or more under Lundy Island, watching for us as a cat watches for a mouse, and getting news now and then from Welsh fishers from Milford Haven.

It was from them that Daffyd learned of my wedding, and so it came to pass that neither he nor the strangers thought for a moment that our two ships held aught but passengers and much plunder, with a princess to hold to ransom, moreover, for the taking.  They took no account of the few house-carles we might have with us, and even I knew nought of the crossing of the armed Danish ship with us, which was planned so that it came as a pleasant surprise to us all.  Thorgils was right, and it had been a terrible one for them.