Soon Leof saw a horse in a field and caught it, mounting bareback, and after that we went on well enough.
Darkness fell, and all the low clouds were reddened with the light of fires behind us, and ever as we looked back would be a fresh fire and light in the sky, for the Danes were at their work. We pushed on steadily, but the lanes were rough, and the miles seemed very long in the darkness; but at last we crossed the Elmham stream and rode to the stockaded house that was the bishop's, and which stands pleasant and well placed on a little hill beyond the low ground, and with no woodland very near it.
We shouted, and at last men fully armed came and let us in. And as I looked back once before the gates closed after me, I thought that the fires were nearer. The Danes were not staying their hands for darkness, for so the terror they spread would be the greater. So also was the bishop's peril therefore.
"Where is Bishop Humbert?" I asked.
"Master, he is in the church, nor will he leave it," said the old steward. "He says he must pray for king and land day and night now till this terror is overpast."
"I will go to him--he must fly," I said.
"Aye, pray him to do so, Wulfric; he will listen to you," said the old man earnestly.
"Have all things ready," I said. "See--there is little time."
"What of the king, master?" asked he, looking at the fires with a white face as he once more opened the gate.
"The king has gone where he would wish to be," I answered very gravely; and he understood me, turning away that I might not see his weeping.