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Serfs they were now in these old fastnesses of theirs to the English folk of the Lindiswaras, who had won their land and called it after their own name, Lindsey. But before long there rode from one of the farmsteads an Englishman of some rank, who had been sent for, as it would seem, and he came with half a dozen armed housecarls behind him to see what was going on.
Therefore it came into his mind that all he could do for the best was to seem to agree, and wait for what the princess herself said. And if Alsi was working some subtlety, then he would wring his neck for him, if need be; and after that well, the housecarls would cut him in pieces, and he would slay some of them, and so go to Valhalla, and dreams would be at an end.
Valiantly they fought, but there was no resisting the solid array of the English housecarls, or Thingmen as they were also called. Taken altogether unprepared, and for the most part without their defensive armour, the Norsemen could offer no successful resistance to the English host.
It has also issued decrees declaring all partisans of Tostig outlaws, and confiscating their estates. Two of Tostig's Danish housecarls were slain on the first day of their meeting. Two hundred of Tostig's personal followers have since been massacred; his treasury has been broken open, and all its contents carried off.
And then came a rush of horsemen, and my cousin gripped my arm, and cried out in a choked voice: "Mercy!" he gasped, "is the man mad?" The new horsemen were men of our own from Dorchester. I saw one or two of Elfric's housecarls among them, and the rest were the sheriff's own men, with a few franklins who had joined him on the road.
At last the obstinate valour of the English housecarls prevailed over the resistance of the fierce Norsemen, and the invading host was driven backward step by step up the ascent until the level ground was reached. Here the battle again raged as fiercely as ever.
"Then," said I, "go and ask Eglaf, the captain of the housecarls, for he knows all about it. We are no raiding Danes, but those who fight for Goldberga of East Anglia." At that a hum of voices went down the English line, and this earl bit his lip in doubt. "Well," he said, "that is Alsi's affair, and I will speak to him.
"It was terrible, Ulred; and though the Norsemen suffered vastly more than we did, the ranks of the housecarls, on whom the brunt of the fighting fell, have been sorely thinned. We shall feel their loss when we meet the Normans. Against their heavily-armed troops and their squadrons of knights and horsemen one of the Thingmen was worth three untried peasants.
So great was the slaughter, that those who had reined up their horses in time were stricken with horror even after all the carnage they had witnessed on the field of battle. With darkness the battle came to an end. Few indeed of the housecarls drew off under cover of the darkness; their force being almost annihilated.
Eglaf was captain of the Lincoln courtmen or housecarls, whichever the right name may be among those who speak of them. One name is Danish and the other English, but they mean the same. As for my good friend Radbard, he was high sheriff before long, and that he is yet. He wedded Ragnar's sister the year that Havelok was crowned in Norwich, which was the next year after the crowning at Lincoln.
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