And when all was ready Relf came to me and said that he would go to his own place with his men, and that he would ask me to take word to his wife and daughter that all was safe at home.  The outlaws had been too busy in the town to seek further for plunder, or had not cared to do so at once.  So he went, as we started, and I was pleased with the chance of having speech with Sexberga.

Now there was a moaning overhead as we went through the woods along the ridge above the valley, and hot breaths of air began to play in our faces.  The clouds raced above us more swiftly, and black masses of scud drifted yet faster below them from across the hard black backs of the downs to the westward.  There was something strange in the feeling of the weather that seemed to betoken more than a storm of wind and rain, and we were silent and oppressed as we marched.

Now we came to the crest of the hill where the track goes down to the level of the river and marshes and to the causeway, which we crossed in the early morning.  I could see now how narrow the outlet of the river was between the hills where it joined the main tidal waters, and the causeway was low, and both it and the bridge were very ancient.  They call it Boreham Bridge, and it is a place that I shall not forget.

When we were halfway down the steep hill suddenly the first blast of the gale smote us in the face, and that with a roar and howl and rush that drowned all other sounds.  The branches flew from the trees along the hillside, and more than one great trunk gave way at last to that onset.  Then all along the coastline grew and widened a white line of flying spindrift that hid the distant gray walls of Pevensea on its low island, and shone like snow against the black dun-edged cloud that came up from out of the sea.

“Hurry, men,” shouted Wulfnoth, “or the bridge will be down!  Look at the tide!”

And that was racing up inland, already foaming through the wooden arches that spanned its course.  I had heard that the tide reached this place a full hour after it began to flow at Pevensea, and even now it was thus, two hours before it should have been at its highest there.

Wulfnoth’s men led, and then came the earl, riding beside Spray and the horse which bore the treasure.  Olaf was riding just behind them, and I marched with our crew not ten paces after him.  So we went down the hill, and so we stepped on the causeway, and came to the first timbers of the bridge.  And hardly had I stepped on them than there came a great shout from the men behind us, while one seized my arm and pointed seaward across the marshes.

There came rushing across the level—­blending channel and land into one sea as it passed—­a vast white roller, great as any wave which breaks upon the shore, and its length was lost behind the hill before us, and far away to our left.  So swiftly did it come that it seemed that none of us might gain the hill before it whelmed us and causeway and bridge alike.