I knew that this should be done as at Bosham, but already I heard the shouts yet nearer, and I was loth to leave the church, and so paused.

“I know your thoughts,” said the bishop.  “Yet go, as I bid you; it is not far.”

So I took the heavy, iron-bound chest on my shoulder and went quickly, running as well as I might to the stream below the rampart, where it curled deep and still under crumbling banks.  There I plunged my burden, hearing it sink and bubble into the depths.

Then I went back, and reached the gap in the rampart that had been the gate next the ford, and that was at the east end of the church, so that the porch was far from me.  And before I had gone halfway to the church—­over the western rampart spurred a score of horsemen, dimly seen in the half moonlight that was now.  And the leader of them saw me, and rode straight at me, calling to me to hold, while I drew my sword and ran to reach the door before he met me; and my dog, which was at my heels, flew at the horse’s throat.

But I must fail, and I whirled up my sword to strike—­and then a long flash of light from a spear point smote me, and over me the man rode, pinning me to the ground with the spear through my left shoulder.  His horse trod on me, and the man wrenched the weapon from me as he passed on, and I had but time to call out to Leof to warn him, when a rushing came in my ears, and a blaze of light before my eyes, and the world passed from me.

Then I seemed to stand in darkness, while past me, gloriously shining, went Leof, and then the old steward and one of those two men who had whispered together, and then Humbert the Bishop himself.  But it seemed to me that he paused and looked on me, saying, in a voice that was like music: 

“Hereafter—­not now.  Twice have you offered your life today, and yet there is work for you.  Be content to wait.”

So he passed, looking kindly at me, and then the blackness came over me again.

When I came round at last it was high day, and the air was full of smoke around me.  One sat on a great brown horse looking at me, and by my side cried my dog; and I groaned, whereat the man got off his horse and came to me.  And I knew that it was Hubba, and some of the men I knew were there also.

“Why, Wulfric, friend, how is this?  I thought you were dead.  Who has dared to hurt you?  What has happened here?”

“You know well,” I gasped.

“Nay, I know not; I have but now ridden this way with our rear guard,” he answered, seeming to pity me.

“Look in the church and see,” I said, groaning.  “You Danes are all one in the matter.”

“Now I am not the man to harm you, nor would any of our folk,” he said.  “Some of our courtmen found you here, and brought me.”

“Slay me and have done,” I muttered; for that was all I would have him do.

“That will I not, Wulfric,” he answered; and he called to some men who were busy about the walls of the church.