CHAPTER XVII.
HEREWARD GOES TO BRUNN, AND IS DISTURBED THERE.

From Peterborough the Lord of Brunn made one good march across the fen country to Crowland, where he saluted the good Abbat and brotherhood, who had put their house into excellent order. And having tarried for a short season with the trusty monks of Crowland, he went down the river Welland unto Spalding, where he embarked the treasure which he had taken, and sent Girolamo of Salerno to have charge of it and see it safely delivered to the Lord Abbat of Ely.[[179]] Having done all this, and having seen that the river Welland and the country about Crowland and Spalding were well guarded, Hereward went across the country to Brunn to visit his fair wife, whom he had not seen since the quinquaine of Pasche. Elfric went with him, and in this manner there were two happy meetings. The old manor-house at Brunn had been beautified as well as strengthened under the eye of the Ladie Alftrude; and the old township, being ridded of the Normans, was beginning to look peaceful and prosperous as it used to do in the happy times of the good Lord Leofric of blessed memory. The unthinking people were already forgetting their past troubles, and beginning to imagine that there would be no troubles for the future, or that, come what might the Normans would never get footing again in the fen country. Elfric was not an unthinking young man, but his love for Maid Mildred caused him to take up the notion of the townfolk. He thought he might soon turn his sword into a reaping-hook, and that it was already time for keeping the promise which his master had made to him. Mildred said nay, nay, but in a manner which sounded very like yea, yea. Lord Hereward said, “Wait awhile; ye are both young, and this war is not over. Beyond the fens the Normans are still triumphant, and the Saxons confounded and submissive. Elfric, there is work to do, and short is the time that I can abide here.”

The ex-novice quietly submitted himself to the will of his lord; and for a short season he lead a very easy, happy life, hawking or fishing in the morning, with Hereward and the ladie, and rambling in the eve with Mildred in the wood which lay near the house. One fine summer eve, about fifteen days after their coming to Brunn, Elfric and Mildred went rather farther into the wood than it had been usual for them to go; and reaching the bank of a clear little stream, they sat down among the tall rushes, and after talking and laughing for awhile they became reflective and silent, and gazed at the stream as it glided by, all gilded and enamelled by the setting sun. They had not sate thus long when Elfric was startled by some distant sound, which did not reach the ear of Mildred, for when he said, “What noise is that?” she said she heard none. But Elfric was quite certain he had heard a noise afar off, and a sound of a rustling among the willows and fen-trees. “Well,” said Mildred, “it will be the evening breeze, or the fen-sparrows, or mayhap the marsh-tits tapping the old willow-trees to hollow out their nests.”

“There breathes not a breath of air, and this is not the season in which the marsh-tit makes its nest in the old willows,” said Elfric. “But hark! I hear the sound again, and ... ah! what is that?... By St. Ovin’s cross! I see afar off a something shining in the red sunbeams that looks like the head of a Norman lance! See! look there, behind those trees at the foot of yon hillock!”

The maiden looked, and although at first she saw nothing, she soon turned pale, and said, “In truth, Elfric, I see a spear, and another, and now another. But now they move not! they disappear.”

“Mildred,” said the young man, “run back to the manor-house with thy best speed, and tell Lord Hereward what thou hast seen!”

“But wilt thou not go with me? I almost fear to go alone through the wood.”

“The path is straight and dry,” said Elfric; “there is no danger: but I must go forward and discover what be these new comers, who are coming so stealthily towards the wood and the manor-house, and who bring lances with them and sound no horn.”

“But there will be peril for thee, oh Elfric, unarmed and all alone as thou art.”