“We are not oath breakers, King Alfred,” Osmund said, looking him in the face.

“Once did the Danes swear to me on their holy ring, which seems to me to be their greatest oath, and they broke the peace so made.  What is that but that they are forsworn?”

“We swore nought to you, lord king,” Osmund said.  “Half of the men with us came newly from across the sea but a week or so since.  Guthrum and those who swore are in their own land.”

Then the king glanced at me, suddenly, as it would seem, remembering what I had told him of the freedom of the chiefs.

“Ha! now I mind me of a word spoken in time,” he said.  “It has seemed to me that there was oath breaking; maybe I was wrong.  I will take your words that you have not done so.  Is that amends enough?”

“It is well said, lord king,” Osmund answered gravely.

“But,” Alfred went on, “I must have the word of every chief who is in Exeter, and they must speak for every man.  Tell me in all truth if there are those who would not make peace with me?”

Then said Osmund: 

“Some will not, but they are few.”

“What if you make peace and they do not? what shall you do with them?”

“They must go their own way; we have no power over them.”

“Has not Guthrum?”

“No more than we.  A free Dane cannot be hound, unless he chooses, by another man’s word.”

Then Alfred said plainly: 

“I cannot treat for peace till I have the word of every chief in Exeter.  Go your ways and let that be known.”

So Osmund bowed, and went out with his fellows.  And when he had gone, the king turned to me.

“Have I spoken aright, King Ranald?”

“In the best way possible, lord king,” I answered.

“Go after those Danish lords,” the king said to one of his thanes, “and bid them to feast with me tonight, for I think that I have said too much to them.”

So they were bidden to the king’s feast presently, and I suppose they could do nought but come, for it was plain that he meant to honour them.  After they had gone back into the town, Alfred spoke with my men, and what he said pleased them well.

Then he went to his resting tent, and I walked with Odda to his quarters, and sat there, waiting for the king to send for me to speak with him, as I expected.  But word came that he would wait till he had heard more of the Danish answer to his message before we spoke together of that he had written of to me.  So he prayed me to wait in the camp till he had seen the Danes again, and told Odda to find quarters for us.

“So we shall have a good talk together,” the ealdorman said.  “I am glad you are not going back to the ships yet.”

So was I, for all this fresh life that I had not seen before pleased me.  Most of all I wished to see more of Alfred and the state in which he lived.

Now, just when I was ready for the feast, and was sitting with Odda, there came a guard to the tent and said that the chief of the Danes was seeking King Ranald.