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They were the last of the fleet that England had had but five years ago and her mightiest. Now it happened that I was to see much of this Earl Wulfnoth before we had done with him, so I will say at once how he came to have the king's ships, and how it was that we must ask his help for Ethelred or rather why he had not given it freely.
Then at last came a messenger from Wulfnoth to bid me ride to see him at Pevensea, and I went, wondering what new turn of things was on hand. But when I reached the castle, I saw a ship that I knew lying in the haven one of Olaf's own.
But when I rose in the morning after Ulf had come, and found that he and Godwine had gone in the night, and was told by Wulfnoth who the warrior was, and what he had asked for his son, I was very angry, though I knew that the earl had little cause to love the house of Ethelred. But the earl said, very quietly: "There are two kings in England, and no king of England.
He had come to Winchester to find some merchant who needed a ship, as it seemed, and he began, as a good sailor will, to praise his own vessel with little encouragement. I found out from him that Southampton Water was full of Danish vessels, and so I asked where his own lay. "In Bosham haven," he said. "Earl Wulfnoth will have no Danes in his land.
After this I saw no more of Earl Wulfnoth, and the winter set in with heavy snow and frosts, so that before long one might hardly stir into the woods, where the drifts were over heavy in the deep shaws to be very safe to a stranger. But we had some good days when word came that the foresters had harboured an old boar in a sheltered place.
"The Danes hold that England has paid scatt to their king as overlord, and that is proof of right for Cnut, as they say," answered Olaf. "They say!" growled Wulfnoth fiercely. "King and witan and people have been fools enough to buy peace with gold and not with edged steel. But that has been ransom, not tribute.
I had come to think very much of what the steadfast eyes of the brave maiden would tell me as I watched her face. But that evening came Wulfnoth and Godwine, and they had made a plan for themselves which might help me to reach Eadmund when my freedom came. They had manors on the Severn, at Berkeley, and the earl would go there to save them if possible from plunder.
"I am Godwine, son of Wulfnoth the earl." "Then you have right to ask," answered our king. "I am Olaf Haraldsson. I am a viking, and come in peace to see and speak with your father." The boy stared at the king in wonder for a moment. "Are you truly Olaf the Thick, who broke London Bridge?" he asked.
So we went aft to the chief, who stood beside Bertric. And when I came to him he said, pointing westward: "Here comes Earl Wulfnoth, as I think." Then I saw three large ships beating up to us, and the sail of one bore, painted on it, the device of a fighting warrior, Earl Wulfnoth's own ensign.
And at last she spoke. "What do Earl Wulfnoth and Redwald the thane seek?" "Read me what is in the time to come. What shall be the outcome of this strife for England?" the earl said plainly, but in a low voice. "Time to come is longer than I can read," said the old woman, never stirring or taking her eyes from the earl.
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