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That was all that I could do. Egil or Godwine might befriend me. Godwine surely would, but I knew not if his word would go for anything. Aye, but that was an awesome walk across the upland, where the flower of England lay dead. I knew not what had befallen us fully until I went slowly over Ashingdon hill.
I took the letter ashore and went to Ashingdon hill and sat there among the graves of the slain and read it, while the summer sun and wind and sky were over me, while the land and sea seemed at rest, and all was in a great peace after the strife that I had seen in that place. To my Thane, greeting.
Ice cold were those who would need mail no more on Ashingdon hill. "The sword is under the horse," the man said groaning. And it was so, and unhurt. "Get me a sword from off the field," I said, "and hide Foe's Bane somewhere. Then, if they slay me, take it to Egil, Jarl Thorkel's foster brother; and if not, I can find it again. I will not have it taken from me thus."
Then my horse reared and fell back on me, and I heard a great shout, and the rush of many feet passed over me, and Ashingdon fight and aught else was lost in blackness. "The man is dead," said a rough voice. "Let him bide." "He is not," one answered. "He had nought to slay him. Here be three flesh wounds only."
Maybe Ashingdon hilltop is full fifty acres in the more level summit, and we could not guard it all; so we waited on that edge nearest the Danes, the half circle that faces inland from the marshes towards the battle ground we had lost, and to Hockley from the river. And presently the Danes began to come up the hill in even line, and we watched them drawing nearer in silence.
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.
"Now I have to come ere long into your country," he said, "for I have vowed to build a church in each place where I have fought and conquered. Have you a house where I may stay?" "My place is far from Ashingdon, lord king," I answered, "and I am rebuilding my father's house as best I can." "I suppose my men burnt it?" he said plainly. "Your father's men did so in the first coming."
But he was far beyond my reach, nor could I tell where he might be. He had gone across the gray rim of the sea, and no track was there for me to follow. The evening fell, and still I sat there, and Thrand of Colchester came to seek me I know not what he feared for me if I grew lonely on Ashingdon hill now that all seemed lost. "Master, come back to the ships," he said.
The rounded top of Ashingdon hill seemed to tower higher than its wont, and close at hand, beyond the swampy meadows to our left, and I wondered that Cnut had not chosen that for his camping ground, though maybe it would have been less well placed for reaching the ships, owing to some shoaling of water that did not suit them.
Only the Danish horsemen followed us to find out what we did. And we saw the main force drawing back towards their earthworks on one wing, while the other held the place of battle, and it was not plain at once why they thus divided. We rested for a short half hour on Ashingdon hill, and the men of Ulfkytel gathered to us.
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