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"Aye maybe I would, after all," he answered, and was silent. Then he said, "Guthrum and I spoke just now, and he said that your faith must be worth more than he knew, to set you so fixedly on it." Now I would have told him that it was so, but there came a little sound at the door, and Halfden went and opened it. Across its half darkness came a woman's form, and Osritha spoke in her soft voice.
To the Saxons there came no new levies, while from the north and east of England, as well as from over the sea, Guthrum was ever drawing to his standard wandering bands of sturdy Northmen. The most important of these reinforcements came to him from an unexpected quarter this autumn.
Under Guthrum, a weak-kneed son of his lost it to the English Alfred, and we fell out of our fortunes with the tipping of the scales, and Angles have sat since then in the seat of Lodbrok's sons. But now the scales have risen again. Under Canute, Ivarsdale, with all other English property, comes back to Danish hands.
"If there is to be any brotherhood between us, it must be as between Christians. The ways of persecution must be forgotten and that cannot come to pass until the chiefs at least have accepted the faith." "It is strange to me, my king," I said, "that Guthrum, who has been in England for ten years, is not Christian by this time." "Ay, but his hosts are heathen," the king answered.
King Alfred, with a policy worthy of his sagacity, made Guthrum, the Danish governor of Suffolk, a Christian, and continued him in his rule. The Danes in East Anglia were then an immense army, and thus at once they were turned from foes into friends. Guthrum was baptized, and it is to be hoped was all the better for it.
Guthrum was therefore honestly resolved on keeping his faith with his new ally; and when all these stipulations were made, and the treaties were signed, and the ceremonies of the baptism all performed, Alfred dismissed his guest, with many presents and high honors.
The host was quiet in winter quarters in Mercia, and the Danes in our country grew friendly with us, harming no man. These men, I could see, would fain bide in peace, settling down, being tired of war, and liking the new country, where there was room and to spare for all. In early spring Guthrum went to the host on the Wessex borders, taking command in Ingvar's place.
The year 876 was still young when the whole pagan army, which had wintered at and about Cambridge, marched to their ships and put to sea. Guthrum was in command, with the other two kings, Anketel and Amund, as his lieutenants, under whom was a host as formidable as that which had marched across Mercia through forest and waste, and sailed up the Thames five years before to the assault of Reading.
We heard, too, that Guthrum, the king of East Anglia, was there now, and that he had summoned every warrior who would leave the land he had won to come to him. Men have blamed Guthrum for treachery in this; but seeing that the peace was broken, and that he must needs fight for the peace at least of his kingdom, I hold that this is not right.
"Ay, so they always say," the chief growled; "but what place with Alfred in return?" "It is likely that I shall gain no place with him," I said. "Jarl Osmund knows that I do not count on that." "Ay," said Osmund, "I know it. Nor will any man think that I seek honour at Alfred's hands." Then Guthrum rose up, and spoke gravely and yet very determinedly, as if this was no new matter to him.
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