"But I might have resisted."
And he persisted in his unavailing regret.
It was a sad sight to see the field of battle strewn for miles with the dead and dying, while gangs of plunderers swarmed in all directions. One sharp encounter with such a party served to warm Edmund's blood, after which he was a little more cheerful.
But the saddest scene in the flight lay on a gentle eminence, commanding a view of the field, whose deformities night mercifully shrouded from view, although the murmurs of the wounded reached them even there in one long subdued wailing moan.
There, on that little hill, lay bishops and abbots in their sacerdotal apparel. Where they had met to pray, there they lay in death! With a deep sigh Edmund recognised Ednoth, bishop of Dorchester, lying stark and stiff in his bloody robes. A troop of Danish horsemen had surrounded the hill and massacred them all. The assassins had even hewn Ednoth's finger off for the episcopal ring.
Yet, even at this awful crisis, Edmund's lion heart did not wholly fail him, as he left the field where lay all the flower of the Anglo-Saxon race: the brave and faithful Ulfketyl, Earl Ethelweard, Earl Godwin, Elfric the ealdorman, and well nigh all the great men of England, all sleeping in death. He rode to the south till he reached the vale of the Thames, which he pursued until he reached the neighbourhood of Gloucester--Alfgar and Hermann still by his side. And now it was seen how his merits were recognised, and how he had already gained the love of his people, for, from the territory of the Hwiccas, and all the extreme west of Mercia, men flocked to his standard until he was at the head of an army almost as numerous as that he had lost at Assingdun, only less perfectly disciplined and officered.
But Canute followed hard upon his heels, hoping to crush him while yet weak in numbers, until he discovered, to his great mortification, his rival's camp on the banks of the Severn, and saw that the forces were again nearly equal.
Then even the Danish chieftains shuddered at the thought of another battle. Five great battles had been fought, in three of which they had been defeated. There was no Edric now with Edmund to play into their hands, and they hesitated to engage a sixth time.
At this moment an embassy was seen approaching from Edmund's army. Alfgar bore Edmund's personal defiance to Canute, offering to spare the effusion of blood, and settle their differences by single combat.
Canute's brave and impetuous temper caught the suggestion at once. Such appeals to the God of battles were common in the north, and he accepted the challenge.