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Updated: May 13, 2025
To that poor place, at least, the Danes had not come, for the remains of food left on the table showed that the owners had fled hastily, but in panic, and that none had been near the place since. Now Dudda would have us take poles and a net we found left, on our shoulders, that we might seem fishers daring to return, or maybe driven by hunger to our work.
"I know not the path, though I have heard of the cottage," Dudda said; "but it will be strange if I cannot find a way to the place."
But we knew that we could bide here for this night safe as if no Danes were nearer than the Scaw. Dudda the Collier led us to the largest house which stood on the little central green round which the buildings clustered, and there the door stood open, and a tall man with a small boy beside him looked out to see what was disturbing the dogs.
Then I knew not what to say; but Heregar beckoned to me, saying: "Come, leave her her joy; it were cruel to spoil it, and maybe she will never know her mistake." So we rode on, and Heregar called Dudda, asking him if he knew Denewulf's cottage; while in the track stood the witch, blessing her king as eagerly as she had cursed her gossip just now.
When Wulfhere came, swimming beside the boat in which sat Wislac, he took three men and went quietly to Combwich, which was nearly half a mile from where we landed, and was back presently, reporting all quiet. Then Dudda and the other rowers sank the boats, lest they should be seen by chance, and so betray us and our crossing.
Then out of a hollow tree Elgar drew oars for both boats, and we got them out into the river, and Dudda rowing one, and Elgar the other, in which I sat, we went to the place where they should be, keeping under the bank next the Danes. And it was well for us that the tide was so low, for else we should surely have been spied.
This man was out daily, seeking news with the rest; and one day, just a week after we had come to Cannington, when the frost had bound everything fast again, he came home and sought his master. Heregar and I and Osmund sat together silently before the fire, and he looked from one to the other of us outlanders. "Speak out, Dudda," said Heregar, who knew his ways; "here are none but friends."
We held on down its course until Dudda told me in a low voice that we were but a bowshot from the boats, and that now it were well for the men to lie down that they might be less easily noticed. So the word was passed in a whisper down the line, and immediately it seemed as if the force had vanished, as the white mist crept over where they had stood.
Here Dudda the Collier's task was ended, and I called him to me, pulling out the purse the good prioress had given me, that I might give him a gold piece for his faithful service. He stood before me, cap in hand, and I gave him a bright new coin, and he took it, turning it over curiously. "Take it, Dudda," I said, "you have earned it well."
Maybe, as often happens, he had told some wild story to so many that he believed it himself. "Then, my sons," said the hermit, "the fiend finding Dudda no prey of his, departed straightway, and he need fear no more."
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