When we came to the great gates, they were shut.  The sounds of feasting went on in the hall, and the red light glared from the high windows.  Forgotten was all but revelling—­and the guard who kept the gate was Raud the forester, my friend.  He opened the gates a little, and we three slipped out and stood for a moment together.  The night was very dark, and the wind howled and sang through the stockading, and none seemed to be about the place.

There Halfden took my hand and bade me farewell very sadly.

“This is the best I may do for you, my brother.  Go with Raud to his house, and thence he and Rolf and Thoralf your shield man, who all love you, will take you even to Hedeby, where there are Christian folk who will help you to the sea and find passage to England.  And fare you well, my brother, for the days we longed for in your land will never be—­”

“Come in the ship to England, that so there may be good times even yet,” I said.

“Aye, to England I shall surely come—­not to seek you, but at Ingvar’s bidding.  Yet to East Anglia for your sake I will not come.”

Then he grasped my hand again in farewell, and he went inside the gates and closed them, and Raud and I went quickly to his place.

There we found those two other good friends of mine waiting, and they told me that all was well prepared to save them from the wrath of Ingvar, for they had been bidden to carry messages, and other men of the crew who lived far off would do this for them, for I feared for their lives also when the flight was known.

Long was the way to Hedeby, where Ansgar the Bishop had built the first church in all Denmark.  But we won there at last and in safety.  And there Ansgar’s folk received me well, and I parted from my three comrades, not without grief, so that I asked them to take service with us in England.  Almost they consented, but Rolf and Thoralf had wives and children, and Raud would by no means leave his brother.

Now in a few days, a company of merchants went from Hedeby with goods for England, and with them I went; and in no long time I came into Ingild’s house by London Bridge, and was once more at home as the second week in May began.

CHAPTER XI.  THE COMING OF INGVAR’S HOST.

Aught but joy did I look for in my homecoming, but it was all too like that of Halfden, my friend.

No need to say how my kind godfather met me as one come back from the dead, nor how I sent gifts back to Ansgar’s people, who sorely needed help in those days.

But very gently the old man told me that Elfric my father was dead, passing suddenly but a month since, while by his side sat Ulfkytel the Earl, blaming himself for his blindness and for his haste in not waiting for the king’s judgment, and yet bidding my father take heart, for he had never known his ways of justice fail.  And he asked forgiveness also, for there had been a deadly feud concerning this between him and my people, so that but for Eadmund the King there would have been fighting.  Yet when one told Ulfkytel that men held that my father’s heart broke at my loss, the great earl had made haste to come and see him, and to say these things.  So they made peace at last.