Olaf bade the townspeople prove their loyalty by taking all the Danish warriors who were in the place, and bringing them to him on the market hill where the great roads cross. Then was fighting in Colchester for a while, but in the end, towards sunset, there was a sullen gathering of them enough, and many were wounded.
Then the king went and spoke to them.
"What think you that I will do to you?" he asked.
"Even as we would do to you," one said.
"Hang me, maybe?" said Olaf.
"Aye, what else?" the man answered in a careless way, but looking more anxious than he would wish one to see.
"I do not hang good warriors," the king said. "What would you do if I gave you life?"
"What bargain do you want to make?" said the Dane.
"If I put you into a ship and let you go, will you promise to take a message for me to Cnut, and not to come back to England as foes?"
"If that is all, we will do it," the man answered, while his look grew less careful, and the other men assented readily enough with the fierce townsmen and their broad spears waiting around them.