"Open the gate, and you shall know."

"Not so, Thane," cried one of our men, who was peering through the
timbers of the stockade. "Now that I can see, I have counted full
fifty men, and they are waiting as if to rush in."

Then said my father:

"Maybe we will open the gate when we are sure you are friends. One
may be forgiven for doubting that when you come thus at midnight to
a peaceful house."

"We are friends or not, as you choose, Aldred," the voice answered.
"I am Erpwald, Woden's priest, and I am here to stay wrong to the
Asir of which I have heard."

"I will not pretend not to know what you mean, Erpwald," answered
my father. "But this, as it seems to me, is a matter that concerns
me most of all."

"If it concerns not Woden's priest, whom shall it concern?"
answered Erpwald. "It is true, then, that you have left the Asir to
follow the way of the thralls, led aside by that Welshman you have
with you?"

"It is true enough that I am a Christian," said my father steadily.
"As for leaving the Asir, that is not to be said of one whose line
goes back to Woden, his forefather. But I cannot worship him any
longer. Forefather of mine he may be, but not a god."