"Now am I most willing to help you," I said; "and I will say this--so are you likely in the end to be hailed king indeed."

"That is well," he answered, flushing a little. "But there is one man whom I will never ask to own me as king, and that is yourself. But if you do so of your own will, it will be better yet."

So we parted, each as I think pleased with the other, and I knew that East Anglia had found a wise ruler in Guthrum the Dane.

Straightway now I told my people the good news that Reedham was safe. The longships came up to Norwich time after time now; and there had been but one thought among us, and that was that our place could not have escaped the destruction that had fallen on all the shore and riverside villages.

Then Ingild said:

"These Danes have come as our forefathers came here, to take a new and better country for themselves, but the strife between them and us is not as the strife between alien peoples. They are our kin, but between us and the Welsh was hatred of race. They will settle down, and never will East Anglia pass from Danish hands, even if Ethelred of Wessex makes headway enough to be owned as overlord of England by them. Now therefore is there one place in all England where peace has come, and to that place I would go to end my days. Here in London the tide of war will ebb and flow ever. Let me go down with you to Reedham, my son, that I may die in peace."

So we did but wait until he had set all his affairs in order, selling his house and merchandise and the like. Then we hired a ship that came from the Frankish coast and waited for cargo in the Thames, and sailed at the end of July to Reedham. With us were Egfrid and Eadgyth and my mother and Cyneward, who would by no means leave me, and to whom Guthrum willingly gave leave to go with us.

We came easily to Reedham, and very strange it was to me to see two Danish longships lying in our roads, while our own shore boats were alongside, the men talking idly together on deck or over gunwale in all friendliness. Stranger yet it was to see the black ruins of farms and church on the southern shores of the river mouth, and at Reedham all things safe and smiling as ever.

Then was a wondrous welcome for us on our little staithe, and all the village crowded down to greet us. Nor were the men from the Danish ships behindhand in that matter, for they too would welcome Lodbrok's friends.

So we came home, and soon the old life began again as if naught had altered, but for the loss of loved faces round us. Yet in peace or war that must come, and in a little while we grew content, and even happy.