“Let us die, then, like brave men,” was the cry of many, “since we cannot live as freemen.”

“And shed our blood in vain, leaving the victory to the oppressors!  Nay, we must live for another Senlac, which shall reverse the doom of the former.  Leofric of Deeping, our guest from East Anglia, will tell you of one who yet defies Norman tyranny, with whom we may unite, under whose banner victory may yet bless the old flag of England.”

Leofric rose, amidst cheers and demonstrations of applause, somewhat tempered by the gravity of the occasion; nay, a few faint-hearted churls said, “Let us hear what he has to propose before we cheer him.”

“Has the name of Hereward, Lord of Brunn, yet reached your ears?”

A general shout of approbation replied, “Yes!”

“He it was who, while yet but a stripling, stirred up the people of Dover to drive the proud Eustace out of their town, in good King Edward’s time, when he slew with his own hands a French knight.  He fought by the side of our Harold when he tamed Griffith, the wildcat of Wales.  He was in Flanders, to our great loss, when the Normans invaded England, and there he heard, with grief, of the death of our Harold and the slaughter at Senlac.  Now, hearing that many brave men yet defy the tyrant in the Isle of Ely, protected by its bogs and marshes, he has accepted the invitation of the Abbot Thurstan, and has hastened to return home and place himself at their head.  Three years have passed since Hastings, and yet England is unconquered; the Normans concentrate their force against Ely in vain; Crowland, Spalding, and many other places are recovered, and the Danes promise their assistance to deliver those who were their brethren under Canute from Norman tyranny.

“Therefore, in the name of the Lord of Brunn and the Abbot Thurstan of Ely, I invite you to repair thither, to take part in the great struggle so nobly begun for the deliverance of England from the hateful yoke.”

There was a dead silence, broken at last by a voice: 

“But might we not first strike a blow for our own poor homes?”

“That blow shall be struck in time, and in time not far off; but now it would be a waste, and a sinful waste of English blood, just when every man is wanted.  What can ye do against ten thousand Normans, out here in the open country? or what good can ye hope to do in the woods?  Nay, come to the Camp of Refuge, the last retreat of England’s noblest sons; there is the noble Archbishop Stigand, the faithful English prelate, who dared to defy the Conqueror to his face; there the Bishops of Lincoln, Winchester, Durham, and Lindisfarne, whose fair palaces are usurped by Norman intruders; there the patriotic Abbots of Glastonbury and St. Albans; there nobles, thanes—­all who yet dare to hope for England’s salvation; and thence shall the tide of victory return after the ebb, and sweep the Bastard and his Norman dogs into the sea.  England shall be England again, yea, to the latest generations.”