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Updated: June 21, 2025
"And she is loaded with herring also and saileth on the morrow toward noon. Go, then, and speak freely, as thou sayest." Bernulf did so; and the Captain Eric entered heartily into his plans as Bernulf laid them before him. "The loons!" he exclaimed with a hearty laugh, as he heard of the journey through the fens. "The witless geese!
"We lodge not here. I do know a cheaper place; and we be not Normans that we have money to waste." Richard Wood frowned. "Speak not against the Normans," he said. "The king is a Norman." "Oh, ay," answered Bernulf, indifferently. And then he added with determination in his tone, "We lodge not here." Herebald now drew Richard Wood aside.
That morning the ship of Eric had slightly changed her position, and Bernulf so managed that, when the small row-boat he was bidden to hire was about to put off from land, Eric's ship would naturally be the first one boarded. "Do we go with thee?" asked Herebald. "Nay," answered Richard Wood. "Here be two men who will row for us. Do ye stay where ye be and watch."
The tour, however, was destined to be a short one, since the second ship they visited proved to have among her sailors two men that they knew. And, moreover, they discovered the captain to be one Eric, whose mother was cousin to Bernulf's father. "Here have we luck," said Bernulf. "To Eric may I speak freely." "Yea, verily," answered Herebald.
"Ay, and by to-morrow at this time will his pursuers be upon their journey," said Eric. "I am to refuse to let them come aboard, sayest thou, until they demand permission in the king's name? And then the moment they be down the companionway I am to hoist the anchor and be off?" "Yea," answered Bernulf, "that is it." "So be it," returned Eric.
And he affected to be greatly displeased. "Peace, man!" said Richard Wood, more pacifically. "It is true ye be Saxons, but that is by the will of heaven. And ye be in nowise to blame therefor. So should ye bear with patience the lot of Saxons." "Which is to wait on Normans, as ye would say," retorted Bernulf, scornfully. "But we bide here, as thou hast said."
We must find the ship that is loaded and ready to weigh anchor to-morrow toward noon when the wind and tide will serve. And we must bespeak the help of the captain to get these knaves aboard." "True, Bernulf," responded Herebald. "Thou hast a wit that would match with the canon's."
Not for himself did he feel anxiety, but for Hugo. If the canon hardly knew what to do, how could he hope to succeed in protecting the lad? The canon was the first to speak. "If it can be done," he said, "the knaves in the fen must be kept from the king. I will have in to our conference Herebald and Bernulf." And rising, he summoned them.
"It seemeth to me that it were best to put them there to search the town. What thinkest thou?" "Even as thou thinkest," returned Herebald, grinning. "And then," continued Bernulf, "methinks it would be seemly to entice them aboard a fishing-vessel and ship them off for France, and so be rid of them." "Yea," agreed Herebald.
"Yea, I be not so dull as some Normans, though I be counted but a slow-witted Saxon," returned Bernulf, with complacency. "And now let us first to our supper and the putting away of the ponies, and then do we take boat and visit the ships." They found an inn suited to their tastes in one of the Rows, and before the dark had really come down over the harbor they were out on a tour of the ships.
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