When I knew this it seemed to me that I had lost all, and for long I cared for nothing, going about listless, so that Ingild feared that I too should grow sick and die.  But I was young and strong, and this could not last, and at length I grew reconciled to things as they were, and Ingild would speak with me of all that I had seen in Denmark.

Now when I told him what I feared of the coming of Ingvar’s host he grew grave, and asked many things about it.

“Ethelred the King is at Reading,” he said; “let us go and speak to him of this matter.”

So we rode thither, and that ride through the pleasant Thames-side country was good for me.  And when we came to the great house where the king lay, we had no trouble in finding the way to him, for Ingild was well known, and one of the great Witan {xviii} also.

I told Ethelred the king of England all that I had learned, and he was troubled.  Only we three were in his council chamber, and to us he spoke freely.

“What can I do?  Much I fear that East Anglia must fight her own battles at this time.  Pressed am I on the west by Welsh and Dane, and my Wessex men have their hands full with watching both.  And it is hard to get men of one kingdom to fight alongside those of another, even yet.  And this I know full well, that until a host lands I can gather no levy, for our men will not wait for a foe that may never come.”

I knew that his words were true, and could say nothing.  Only I thought that it had been better if we had held to our Mercian overlords in Ecgberht’s time than fight for this Wessex sovereign who was far from us; for that unhealed feud with Mercia seemed to leave us alone now.

“Yet,” said Ethelred, “these men are not such great chiefs, as it seems.  Maybe their threats will come to naught.”

But I told him of that great gathering at the sacrifice, and said also that I thought that needs must those crowded folks seek riches elsewhere than at home.  Then he asked me many things of the corn and cattle and richness of the land; and when I told him what I had seen, he looked at me and Ingild.

“Such things as crowding and poverty and hardness drove us from that shore hither.  I pray that the same be not coming on us that we brought to the ancient people the Welsh, whose better land we took and now hold.”

So we left him, and I could see that the matter lay heavily on his mind.

In a week thereafter I rode away homeward, and came first to Framlingham, where Eadmund our own king was.  Very glad was he to see me safely home again.

“Now am I, with good Ingild your other godfather, in Elfric’s place toward you,” he said; “think of me never as a king, but as a father, Wulfric, my son.”

And he bade me take my place as Thane of Reedham, confirming me in all rights that had been my father’s.  With him, too, was the great earl, and he begged my forgiveness for his doubt of me, though he was proud that his strange manner of finding truth was justified.  Good friends were Ulfkytel and I after that, though he knew not that in my mind was the thought of Osritha, to whom he had, as it were, sent me.