Now I might make a long story of the doings of Olaf the king during this summer.  Ottar the scald has much to sing of what we wrought.  For we went through the fair land of Kent with our Norsemen and the new levies, and brought back all the folk to Ethelred.  It was no hard task, for the poor people thought that Cnut had deceived them by his flight; and they were ground down by the heavy payments the Danes had levied on them.  Only at Canterbury, inside whose walls the Danish thingmen gathered in desperation, had we any trouble, and we must needs lay siege to the place.  But in the end Olaf and I knelt in the ancient church of St. Martin and gave thanks for victory.  We had avenged the death of the martyred archbishop, Elfheah.

Ethelred ravaged all Lindsey after Cnut was gone.  It was a foolish and cruel deed, and he left men there who hated his name more than even the name of Swein, to whom they had bowed since they must.  Then he sat down at Oxford as if all were done, while to have marched peacefully, but with a high hand, through the old Danelagh would have made the land sure to him.  Olaf did so in Kent, and when we left it, we left a loyal people who would rise against Cnut for Ethelred if the Danes should indeed return.  And Lindsey would as surely rise for Cnut against us.

But Olaf, though he blamed our king for this, in all singleness of purpose went on with the task that he had undertaken.  And now the next thing was to gather a fleet.

“If we could win Wulfnoth of Sussex to help his king, we have a fleet ready made,” he said.  “Let us sail to his place and speak with him.”

That was true, and the ships that Wulfnoth had were the king’s by right.  They were the last of the fleet that England had had but five years ago—­and her mightiest.

Now it happened that I was to see much of this Earl Wulfnoth before we had done with him, so I will say at once how he came to have the king’s ships, and how it was that we must ask his help for Ethelred—­or rather why he had not given it freely.

It was the fault of Brihtric, Edric Streone’s brother, who had some private grudge against him, and would ruin him if possible.  So he accused Wulfnoth of treachery to Ethelred, and that being the thing that the king always dreaded from day to day—­seeing maybe that he was not free from blame in that matter himself—­so prevailed that the earl was outlawed.  Whereon he fled to the fleet, and sailed away with all the ships that would follow him.

Then Brihtric chased him with the rest, and met with storm and shipwreck on the rugged southern coasts.  And through the storm fell on him Wulfnoth, and beat him and scattered or took the ships the storm had spared.  Brihtric left the rest to their own devices, and the shipmen brought them back into the Thames.  There the Danes took them presently, and that was the end of England’s fleet.

But Wulfnoth turned viking; and would have nought to do with Ethelred after that.  His Sussex earldom was beyond reach of attack through the great Andred’s-weald forests that keep its northern borders, and he could keep the sea line.  So Ethelred left him alone, and Swein would not disturb him.  But his help was worth winning, and Olaf thought that he might do it.