Now the angry voice of Wulfnoth called me from outside the place, and the dame said "Go," smiling at me and holding out her hand.
"No more can I tell you, Redwald. But I have this to say of you, that you have pleased me in asking nought concerning yourself."
"I would know nought beforehand," I said, speaking old thoughts of my own plainly. "It is enough to hope ever for good that may not come, and to live with one's life unclouded by fear of the evil that must needs be."
The dame smiled again, very sadly, as it seemed to me. "It is well said. Now I will tell you this, that over your life is the shadow of no greater evil than what every man must meet. Farewell."
So she spoke her last words to me, and sat down by the fire again. And it is in my thoughts that she wept, but I know not.
Outside stood the earl, staring over the Senlac valley eastward.
"This were a good place for a battle, after all," he said, as to himself. Then he heard me and turned.
"Well, what more has the old witch told you?" he said, trying to speak carelessly, though one might see that he longed to hear more.
As we went towards the horses, I told him, therefore, of what had been said of Eadmund and Cnut. And as he heard he grew thoughtful.
"Now," he said, slowly and half to himself, "if the shadow of that villain Streone is on Eadmund as on me, I will not strike for myself--as yet; and Cnut shall win other men's praise before I give him mine or go to him unsought."