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Updated: June 10, 2025
These were very friendly with me, and I should see more of them if I were indeed to ward the Wessex coasts, and for that reason they made the more of me. Now I saw no more of Osmund the jarl, for Odda knew that the lesser folk would mistrust me if I had any doings with the Danes.
And at that Osmund shouted suddenly: "Back to the hill; we are on the brink of the old mine shaft! Back, and stay not!" Nor did we wait, but we won back to the higher ground before we drew rein. "We have met with Odin himself," Osmund said when we stopped and the thunder let him speak. "Ay, and have driven him hellwards by the might of the holy sign," said Harek.
There was a stir at the door, and the eyes of all turned that way. And when the thanes saw that the hostages were being led in, with Osmund at their head, a great sullen growl of wrath broke from them, and I thought all hope was gone for the lives of those captives. "Hear you this?" the king said, in a terrible voice, when the noise ceased. "By the deed of your own people your lives are forfeit.
"Well, then, here is Jarl Osmund, if you know him not, and he is one. Tell him that what I say is true, and that Chippenham town will be burned out tonight king and all." I saw that the Dane, seeing that I was armed, and not clad in the Saxon manner altogether, took me for one of his own people.
In a loud tone he bade his men cease rowing, and then, clapping his hand to his mouth, asked in a voice that had a ring of scornful command what name the captain bore. "Estein, the son of Hakon, King of Sogn; and who are you who ask my name?" came the reply across the water. "Liot, the son of Skuli," answered the man in the red cloak. "With me sails Osmund Hooknose, the son of Hallward.
"Two messages come to you today," Osmund said; "one by my mouth, and the other by that of King Ranald Vemundsson, who is with me. I think you may hear both, and answer them both favourably." Guthrum made no reply, but took his seat at the upper end of the one room the hut had; and all the chiefs sat also, leaving us messengers standing.
"No more than we. A free Dane cannot be hound, unless he chooses, by another man's word." Then Alfred said plainly: "I cannot treat for peace till I have the word of every chief in Exeter. Go your ways and let that be known." So Osmund bowed, and went out with his fellows. And when he had gone, the king turned to me. "Have I spoken aright, King Ranald?"
"As a heathen altogether, except that I had no hatred of Christians," I answered, not quite seeing what the king would know. "What turned your mind so far from the old gods that you should be a fit messenger on such a matter to us?" "I have learned from Alfred and Neot," I answered, "and I know that I have found what is true." Then Guthrum turned to Osmund.
"You are right, sir!" exclaimed Macdonald. "Here we are; 'April the 19th, 1788 Osmund Maiden, one trunk, marked 409. Doubtless this is your man." It was a thrilling moment, and I felt a sudden and keen interest in the discovery, which I had by no means expected. I stared at the faded inscription on the brown page, written there nearly twenty-eight years before.
Yes, there it was the fateful characters staring us in the face from the end of a small black trunk, next but one to the top of the heap, I felt a pang of disappointment, I had half-hoped that this mysterious Osmund Maiden had returned to claim his property, and that by an oversight the black line had not been drawn through his name.
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