Presently they let us go. We won ever to better ground, and they had to fight uphill; and then we gained the fort, and there they durst not come.
Then rode towards me a man in silver armour that was dinted and hacked--shieldless, and with a notched sword in his hand. It was Heregar.
"I thought you slain, friend," I said gladly.
"Would that I were! for my charge is lost; they have my banner," he answered.
"That may be won back yet," I said. "But there is no shame to you; we were outnumbered by more than two to one."
"I have borne it through ten battles," he said, and that was all; but he put his face in his hands and groaned.
Now I looked out over the field we had left, and saw the Danes scattering in many ways. Some were going in a long line up the steep hill beyond which the village lay, and over this line swayed and danced the lost banner. There was a crowd of our men from the broken wings gathered there--drawn together by the king as he fled, as I knew afterwards; and I think the Danes bore our banner with them in order to deceive them. I knew that the lane was deep and hollow up which they must go, and there were woods on either side.
Whereat I sprang up.
"Thane," I said, "here is a chance for us to win back the banner, as I think."
He looked up sharply, and I pointed.