chapmen they pretended to be. They put me into the litter they had
ready then, and four of the men were told off to bear me,
grumbling. It was only a length of sacking made fast to two stout
poles, and when they had hoisted me to their shoulders a blanket
was thrown over me, and a roll of cloth from one of the bales set
under my head, so that I might seem to be in comfort at least.

Then the band set out, and we went across the hills seaward and to
the west until we saw Watchet below us. There was a road somewhere
close at hand, as I gathered, for we stopped, and some of the
rabble crept onward to the crest of the hill and spied to see if it
was clear. It was so, and here all the band left us, and only Evan
and the other two seeming merchants went on with their followers,
who bore me and led the laden ponies. The road had no travellers on
it, as far as I could see, nor did we meet with a soul until we
were close into the little town that the Norsemen had made for
themselves at the mouth of a small river that runs between hills to
the sea.

Maybe there were two score houses in the place, wooden like ours,
but with strange carvings on the gable ends. And for fear, no
doubt, of the British, they had set a strong stockade all round the
place in a half circle from the stream to the harbour. There were
several long sheds for their ships at the edge of the water, and a
row of boats were lying on a sort of green round which the houses
stood with their ends and backs and fronts giving on it, as each
man had chosen to set his place.