“Then no hand will we have in this unknightly work; but we bid ye desist, or an ye do not we will join with Feargus, and what could we not do under so mighty a leader?”
Feargus spoke out to the Lindeseymen. “Now, ye men of Lindesey, this, my lady, is Torfrida, daughter of Sigmund, your king, and ye, men of Mercia, I have bled for your king, and two hundred of my men fought for him when others fled, and all died for him at the last. If ye do not help me we must fall.”
Then one Lindeseyman said: “I saw him save prince Edwy and his thanes from the Mercians. I will help him.”
“And I saw him stop the slaughter of the Lindeseymen,” said another.
“And I was with him when he held the cliffs for Penda on Trent water,” said a Mercian.
“And I when he saved the day for Mercia at Camulodunum in East Anglia.”
“And I, and I,” said others.
So all these who had held aloof came down over the barriers and stood beside him.
“And I and all Lindeseymen will fight for Torfrida,” said another thane. And he cried, “Lindesey! Lindesey!” and behind him followed the rest of the Lindeseymen crying, “Lindesey! Lindesey!” And the Mercian thanes cried the cry of “Penda! Penda!” that held armies spellbound with fear in the old days, and all the Mercians joined them.