Ulf offered Godwin all sorts of rewards if he would leave his herd and conduct him to a place of safety.  Godwin said that the attempt, were he to make it, would endanger his own life without saving that of the fugitive.  The country, he said, was all in arms.  The peasantry, emboldened by the late victory obtained by the Saxon army, were every where rising; and although it was not far to the Severn, yet to attempt to reach the river while the country was in such a state of excitement would be a desperate undertaking.  They would almost certainly be intercepted; and, if intercepted, their exasperated captors would show no mercy, Godwin said, either to him or to his guide.

Among the other inducements which Ulf offered to Godwin was a valuable gold ring, which he took from his finger, and which, he said, should be his if he would consent to be his guide.  Godwin took the ring into his hand, examined it with much apparent curiosity, and seemed to hesitate.  At length he yielded; though he seems to have been induced to yield, not by the value of the offered gift, but by compassion for the urgency of the distress which the offer of it indicated, for he put the ring back into Ulf’s hand, saying that he would not take any thing from him, but he would try to save him.

Instead, however, of undertaking the apparently hopeless enterprise of conducting Ulf to the Severn, he took him to his father’s cottage and concealed him there.  During the day they formed plans for journeying together, not to the ships in the Severn, but to the Danish camp.  They were to set forth as soon as it was dark.  When the evening came and all was ready, and they were about to commence their dangerous journey, the old peasant, Godwin’s father, with an anxious countenance and manner, gave Ulf this solemn charge: 

“This is my only son.  In going forth to guide you under these circumstances, he puts his life at stake, trusting to your honor.  He can not return to me again, as there will be no more safety for him among his own countrymen after having once been a guide for you.  When, therefore, you reach the camp, present my son to your king, and ask him to receive him into his service.  He can not come again to me.”  Ulf promised very earnestly to do all this and much more for his protector; and then bidding the father farewell, and leaving him in his solitude, the two adventurers sallied forth into the dark forest and went their way.

After various adventures, they reached the camp of the Danes in safety.  Ulf faithfully fulfilled the promises that he had made.  He introduced Godwin to the king, and the king was so much pleased with the story of his general’s escape, and so impressed with the marks of capacity and talent which the young Saxon manifested, that he gave Godwin immediately a military command in his army.  In fact, a young man who could leave his home and his father, and abandon the cause of his countrymen forever