Guthrum looked at me as if puzzled.

“No jest, Thane,” he said; “why not go back?”

“To ruins—­what good?” I answered.

“Now I think you mean that you will not take your land at my hands,” he said.

“That were to own you king.”

“Then, Wulfric, my friend, if I may call you so, that the lands of a friend are not mine to give and take I need not tell you.  Nor do we harm the lands of a friend.  There is one place in East Anglia that no Dane has harmed, or will harm—­the place that sheltered Jarl Lodbrok.  And there is one man whose folk, from himself to the least of all, are no foes of ours—­and that is the Thane of Reedham.  Ah! now I see that I have gladdened you, and I think that you will come.”

“This seems almost impossible,” I said, in my wonder and gladness.

“Nay, but word went round our host that it was to be so.  There you might have bided all unknowing that war was near you.  You do but go back of your own free will.”

Now I was fain to say that I would at once go back to my place, but there was one thing yet that I would say to Guthrum.

“Will you let the Christian folk be unharmed?”

“Little will our people care,” he said, “when once they have settled down, what gods a man worships.  Nor would I have any meddled with because of their faith.”

“Now am I most willing to help you,” I said; “and I will say this—­so are you likely in the end to be hailed king indeed.”

“That is well,” he answered, flushing a little.  “But there is one man whom I will never ask to own me as king, and that is yourself.  But if you do so of your own will, it will be better yet.”

So we parted, each as I think pleased with the other, and I knew that East Anglia had found a wise ruler in Guthrum the Dane.

Straightway now I told my people the good news that Reedham was safe.  The longships came up to Norwich time after time now; and there had been but one thought among us, and that was that our place could not have escaped the destruction that had fallen on all the shore and riverside villages.

Then Ingild said: 

“These Danes have come as our forefathers came here, to take a new and better country for themselves, but the strife between them and us is not as the strife between alien peoples.  They are our kin, but between us and the Welsh was hatred of race.  They will settle down, and never will East Anglia pass from Danish hands, even if Ethelred of Wessex makes headway enough to be owned as overlord of England by them.  Now therefore is there one place in all England where peace has come, and to that place I would go to end my days.  Here in London the tide of war will ebb and flow ever.  Let me go down with you to Reedham, my son, that I may die in peace.”

So we did but wait until he had set all his affairs in order, selling his house and merchandise and the like.  Then we hired a ship that came from the Frankish coast and waited for cargo in the Thames, and sailed at the end of July to Reedham.  With us were Egfrid and Eadgyth and my mother and Cyneward, who would by no means leave me, and to whom Guthrum willingly gave leave to go with us.