Then his face grew dark, and he added:
"But I cannot tell. What can one do with oath breakers of this sort?"
Then I said:
"Surely you do not look for the men of one chief to be bound by what another promises?"
He looked wonderingly at me for a moment, and then said:
"How should it be that the oath of their king should not bind the people?"
"Why," said I, "you have spoken of several chiefs. If Guthrum chooses to make peace, that is not Halfden's business, or Hubba's, or that of any chief who likes it not. One is as free as the other."
"What mean you? I say that Guthrum and his chiefs swore by the greatest oath they knew to return to Mercia."
"If they swore by the holy ring, there is no doubt that they who swore would keep the oath. But that does not bind those who were against the peace making. So I suppose that they who held not with the peace made by the rest fell on you, when your levies went home after their wont. One might have known they would do so."
Thereat the thane was silent for a while, and I saw that he was troubled. It seemed to be a new thought to him at this time that the Danish hosts in England were many, and each free to act in the way its own chief thought best, uniting now and then, and again separating. This he must needs have learned sooner or later, but the knowledge came first to him there before Exeter walls.