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They say there is some great lord hiding in the fens beyond the round hill where Tone and Parret join, that we call the Stane somewhere by Long Hill, they say. Now I mind that one day when the king rode with you across the Petherton heights, he looked out over all the fens, and called me and asked much of them.
And Wulfhere, too, shifted in his seat, as if impatient. Then they went back to the first proposal, and began to name places where men might be posted to keep the Danes in Parret valley at least, till they went away. Then at last Wulfhere grew angry, and rose up, looking very red. "And what think you will Parret valley be like when they have done their will therein?
"Doubtless that could we, once over Parret," answered Wulfhere, "but what then? Away go the Danes through Somerset, burning and plundering even to Cornwall, and there bide till ships come, and then can be gone in safety. That is not what we need. We have to trap them and beat them here." "So then, Wulfhere," I said, "think you that the plan is good?"
I knew not much about ships, but it seemed to me as if lanterns were on deck, and hidden from the shore by the bulwarks, perhaps, but that being so high above, I could look down on them. "If they be honest vessels," thought I, all of a sudden, "why do they hide their lights?" for often had I seen the trading busses pass up our Parret river at night with bright torches burning on deck.
I had grown from boyhood to manhood in my father's great hall, on the little hill of Cannington that looks out over the mouth of the river Parret to the blue hills beyond. And there, when I was but two-and-twenty and long motherless, I succeeded him as thane, and tried to govern my people as well and wisely as he, that I too might die loved and honoured as he died.
I'll send back to the house for an extra one." He paused, brisk as he was; the thought of those four flights a second time dismayed him. The servant had gone out, and Pete was still absent, presumably breaking the news of his engagement to Dr. Parret. Mrs. Wayne had an idea. She went to a window on the south side of the room, opened it, and looked out.
Then I told him that I need ask him but to guide me beyond Parret river, on this side of Bridgwater, for after that the long line of the Quantocks would guide me well enough.
Then we loosed our hands, looking, maybe, a little askance, for our Saxon nature will oft be ashamed, if one may call it so, of a good impulse acted on, and Wulfhere said that we must think of those things hereafter. When we came to the gate there was a little crowd following us, for word had gone round in some way that we were fugitives from Parret side.
And at last he spoke, and the voice was his own, and yet not his own. "Heregar, sorely have I wronged you," he said, "and my rest is troubled therefor. Yet, when I heard what you had done for mine last night, my heart was sore within me, and I repented of all, and would surely have made amends. And now it is too late, and my body lies dishonoured on Parret side while I am here.
He pushed his way southward round the marshes of the Parret to a more fertile territory, and guarded the frontier of his new conquests by a fort on the banks of the Tone which has grown into the present Taunton. The West-Saxons thus became masters of the whole district which now bears the name of Somerset.
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