"How many men might these ships have held?" he asked.
"Maybe five thousand," I answered.
Thereat his face changed, and he rose up from his seat at the high table, and said that he would go down to see that the ships were safe, for the gale was blowing heavily as the night fell.
So we went outside the house, and called a man, telling him to find one of the Poole fishermen and bring him to speak to us.
"There were twelve thousand Danes in Wareham," he said, "for more have come lately. I thought they would all have been in the ships."
"If that had been possible, not one would have seen the morning's light," I answered, "for their ships are lost in this gale certainly."
Now I will say that I was right. The wrecks strewed the shore of Dorset and Hants next morning; and if any men won to land, there waited for them the fishers and churls, who hated them. No Danish fleet was left in the channel after that gale was spent.
When the fisher came, he told us that as many more Danes were left in Wareham, and that those from Poole had fled thither when they saw what had happened to the fleet.
"Shall you march on Wareham and scatter them, or will they fall on us here?" I asked; for we had no more than two thousand men at most.
"I would that I knew what they thought of this business," he answered; "but I shall not move tonight. It is far by land, and I suppose we could not get the ships up in the dark."