We went back almost as these folk came into the castle garth by the western gate, and met them in the courtyard.  Then it was plain that there was trouble on hand, for the leader of the party was a thane whom I knew by sight, as he had been called to our feasting when first we came, and he had brought with him two ladies, who came in no sort of state; and, moreover, there were one or two wounded men among the twenty rough housecarles who followed them, and bore such burdens of household stuff as had been taken by us when we fled from Bures.

I had seen the like too often to mistake these signs, and I said to Olaf: 

“Here is fighting on hand, my king.”

And then before he answered, came Wulfnoth out of the great door and hurried up to the party, doffing his velvet cap as he saw the ladies.

“Ho, friend Relf,” he said, “what is amiss?”

“Outlaws, earl,” said the thane, “and in strong force.”

“This is the pest of my life,” answered the earl angrily, “for no sooner are our men gone harvesting than these forest knaves begin to give trouble.

“When were you last burnt out, Relf of Penhurst?” and he laughed in an angry way that had no mirth in it.

“Four years agone—­after our trouble with Brihtric,” answered the thane.  “They have not been so bold since then; and the small fights I have had with them have not been so fierce that I must fetch you from Bosham to my help.”

“Evil times make them bold,” said the earl.  “How many are there in this band?”

“Enough to sack the Penhurst miners’ village,” the thane said.  “Men say that there are Danes among them; and I know that there are men who are well armed beyond the wont of outlaws and forest dwellers.”

Then Wulfnoth called to us: 

“See here, King Olaf, this is your fault; you have driven the Danes out of Kent into our forests, and now we have trouble enough on our hands.”

“Then, Earl Wulfnoth,” answered Olaf, “my men and I will fight them here again.”

But when we drew near I was fain to look on one of the two ladies who still sat on their horses waiting for the earl’s pleasure.  One was Relf the thane’s wife, and the other his daughter; and it was in my mind that I had never seen so beautiful a maiden as this was.  It seemed to me that I could willingly give my life in battle against those who had harmed her home, if she might know that I did so.

But the thane was telling Olaf that there must be some three hundred of the outlaws and others.

“I had forty-two men yesterday, and I have but twenty with me now,” said he.

“Then you fought?” asked Wulfnoth.

“Aye,” answered the thane shortly, for it was plain enough that he had done so.

“Have they burnt your house?”

“Not when I left.  They are mostly strangers to the land, and they bide where there is ale and plunder, in the old Penhurst village at the valley’s head.”