“Lads! old comrades! will you stand by me if I need you? Will you follow Hereward, as hundreds have followed him already, if he will only go before?”
“We will, we will.”
“I shall be back ere morning. What you have to do, I will tell you then.”
“Stop and eat, but for a quarter of an hour.”
Then Hereward swore a great oath, by oak and ash and thorn, that he would neither eat bread nor drink water while there was a Norman left in Bourne.
“A little ale, then, if no water,” said Azer.
Hereward laughed, and rode away,
“You will not go single-handed against all those ruffians,” shouted the old man after him. “Saddle, lads, and go with him, some of you, for very shame’s sake.”
But when they galloped after Hereward, he sent them back. He did not know yet, he said, what he would do. Better that they should gather their forces, and see what men they could afford him, in case of open battle. And he rode swiftly on.
When he came within the lands of Bourne it was dark.