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"I think that Cnut and his jarls will have lost their journey through your coming hither. The king shall not forget you when all is safe again." Who would not have been pleased with this? I went from Streone's presence with a light heart, until I came to the great hall, and there sat in the high place the Lady Algitha herself and her maidens. Very beautiful she was, but very sad looking.
"'You think, then, that you have not all you deserve? the king said. "'I have not. You have all owing to me. "Then Cnut rose up and faced him, and a great hush fell on all the assembly. "'This earl, as it seems, will be content with nothing short of the king's seat. Two kings has he pulled down, and one has he slain of those two. We have profited by this, as all men know.
The host received them with extreme and even fawning civility, which by no means raised him in the estimation of Cuthbert or Cnut. A rough meal was taken, and they then ascended to the rude accommodation which had been provided. It was one large room barely furnished. Upon one side straw was thickly littered down for in those days beds among the common people were unknown.
The wood was some fifty yards in length, and as it was uncertain at which point the passage had come out, a very minute search had to be made. "What do you think it would be like, Cnut?" Cuthbert asked. "Like enough to a rabbit-hole, or more likely still there would be no hole whatever.
The page too, I hear, is his own nephew, and he will be the laughing-stock of the French camp at having been conquered by one so much younger than himself. It will be well to keep upon your guard, and not to go out at night unattended. Keep Cnut near you; he is faithful as a watch-dog, and would give his life, I am sure, for you.
Cuthbert clinched his teeth and grasped his sword angrily, but had the sense to see the folly of taking any notice of the insult. Not so with Cnut.
Then Olaf made no delay but rode to Colchester to see this shipmaster and speak with him, for he thought that he might find out from him what point on our coasts would be that at which Cnut aimed first. So Gunnhild and Olaf were right, and the little peace we had had was to end.
The thanes and their men gathered in haste, savage with hope deferred, and Cnut shrank back again to Ashingdon on the Crouch, and there built himself an earthwork on the south side of the river, while his ships lay on the further shore at Burnham, and in the anchorage, and along the mud below the earthworks, seeming countless.
Turning off, they made their way along the edge of the wood to the point where the road from Evesham ran through the forest. Scarcely had the party reached this point when they heard a faint clatter of steel. "Here they come!" exclaimed Cuthbert. Cnut gave rapid directions, and the band took up their posts behind the trees, on either side of the path.
A few moments' reflection, however, showed to Cuthbert the impossibility of his attacking a fortress like Evesham, garrisoned by a strong body of well-armed men, with only the archers of the forest, without implements necessary for such an assault. "Send at once, Cnut," he said, "and call in all the band. We cannot take the castle; but we will carry fire and sword round its walls.
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