"Is this forced on us as part of the peace making?"
"It is not," I answered. "It is, as I have said, the wish for brotherhood altogether."
Then said Guthrum:
"That is enough. I do not think that we need be ashamed to be conquered altogether by King Alfred."
"One more word," said the old chief. "Are we to have no hostages?"
"There can be no exchange of hostages," said Osmund.
"Things are all on the side of the Saxon," he growled.
"Ay, they are, in more ways than that," said Guthrum. "We have no power to say a word. It is in my mind that we could not have looked for such mildness at the king's hands. For there is no denying that we are at his mercy.
"What say you, as a stranger, Ranald?"
"I have known the ways of Harald of Norway," I answered. "I think that he would not have left a man of this host alive."