"Ho! that is all I needed to hear. Now, I will not mince matters
with you, Aldred. Either you give up this foolishness, or I am here
to make you do so."

Now, my father looked round at the men and saw that all the
house-carles and one or two from the village were in the courtyard,
fifteen of them altogether, besides himself and Owen. They were all
Christian men, and they stood in a sort of line behind him across
the closed gate with their faces set, listening.

"Don't suppose that there is any help coming to you from the
village," said the hard voice from outside. "There is a guard over
every house."

"Erpwald," said my father, "it is a new thing that any man should
be forced to quit his faith here in Sussex. Nor is it the way of a
thane to fall on a house at night in outlaw fashion. Ina the king
will have somewhat to say of this."

"If there is one left to tell him, that is," came back the reply.
"There will not be shortly, unless I have your word that tomorrow
you come to me at Wisborough and make such atonement to the Asir as
you may, quitting your new craze."

Then said Stuf, the leader of the house-carles, growling:

"That is out of the question, and he knows it. He means to fall on
us, else had he spoken to you elsewhere first, Thane. It seems to
me that here we shall die."