They tried to persuade us, but in vain, and at last they left the matter.  In silence they went each to his place, and took the arms and things which were of value, and so passed down the passage with Witred at their head, and I heard one or two threaten the honest thane with death if he played them false.  But he did not answer them, for he knew that they spoke wildly as yet in the new terror which had broken their sleep.

After that we went back to the council chamber and sat down.  The worst strain was past with their going, as it seemed to me, and the morning would tell what was to be.

“We will stay here,” said Selred.  “There should be three thanes and myself, and you two and Erling will seem the right number when men look into this room presently.”

So again the silence of the midnight came down on us, and in the chill we waited for the return of Witred; and it was two hours before he came.  After him we closed the trapdoor, and the doors of the private rooms of the king who had gone, and then the Mercian planned that matter of the horses.

“Halfway to the forest,” he told us, “some of the thanes would fain have returned to fall on this place, and take revenge and die.  Once I deemed that they would do so, but that fit passed from them.  Then they went on with me, and now they are safe.  It may be that they will get their horses, and if not, they will scatter and make their way home on foot.  Men who come to such a gathering as this have money enough with them.”

After that it was a question with us, and a hard one, to know what it were best to do.  It seemed terrible to wait there until men woke and learned all; but save that we might find Offa himself, there was naught else to be done.  We must wait him.  It is not to be supposed that his thanes would hear one word which seemed to hint that he had had any hand in this deed; but it was plain enough that they feared what evil Quendritha might not have urged him to, else had they made haste to call him.

Now, while we waited there and doubted, word came from Gymbert secretly to Quendritha that her bidding had been done, and that Ethelbert stood in her way no longer.  In the darkness a thrall crept to where the queen sat at a window and watched, and made some sign which she understood, and then in a little while our waiting was at an end.

For straightway she goes to Offa, and stands by his bedside with eyes that gleam in the dim light of the lamp that burns in the chamber, and wakes him, but not easily.  On him the potency of that Frankish wine lingers yet, and he does not rouse quickly, but stares at her with wondering eyes.

“Wake,” she says.  “Today you are the mightiest king that has ruled in England yet.”

“Ay, and was so yesterday,” he says, for so the songs of his gleemen tell him night after night.

“Rouse yourself,” she cries angrily; “hear what I have wrought for you.”