battlefield, they knew not; or whether he had surrendered with the
prisoners taken in the entrenched camp, and who had been all admitted to
mercy.

In the course of the morning they saw Redwald return, laden with the
spoils of the Grange farm--oxen and sheep, waggons containing corn,
driven before him. What passed within on his entrance they could not
tell; how narrow their escape they knew not--were not even certain it
had been an escape at all.

It was now determined that the interment should take place on the
morrow, and the intelligence was communicated rapidly to all the tenantry.

Hourly they expected the forces of Mercia to appear, and exact a heavy
account from Redwald for his offences. He was supposed to be the
instigator of the expedition which had failed so utterly; it was not
likely that he would be allowed to retain Aescendune a long time. The
only surprise people felt was that he should have dared to remain at the
post when all hope of successful resistance had ceased. He had his own
reasons, which they knew not.

Under these circumstances it seemed desirable to hurry forward the
interment, lest it should be interfered with from without, in the
confusion of hostile operations against the hall.

The priory church was a noble but irregular structure, of great size for
those days. The cunning architect from the Continent, who had designed
it, had far surpassed the builders of ordinary churches in the grandeur
of his conception. The lofty roof, the long choir beyond the transept,
gave the idea of magnitude most forcibly, and added dignity to the