father's bidding; and I, being used to obey without question, was
pleased with the thought of the unaccustomed night journey. And
then Owen bethought him, and left me for a moment, going to the
chest where my father had his store of money. It was mine now, and
he took it for me.

It seemed strange to him that there was no ransacking of the house,
as one might have expected. Had the foe fired it he would not have
been surprised at all, but all was quiet in the hall, and the
voices of the men came mostly from the storehouses, whence he could
hear them rolling the casks into the courtyard; so he told me to
bide quietly here in the chamber for a few minutes, and went out on
the high place swiftly, closing the door after him, that I might
see nothing in the hall.

There he found Erpwald himself close at hand, sitting in my
father's own chair while the wound that Owen himself had given him
was being dressed. At the side of the great room sat the rest of
our men, downcast and wondering, and half a dozen of the foe stood
on guard at the door. It was plain that nought in the house was to
be meddled with.

Erpwald turned as he heard the sliding door open.

"Get you gone as soon as you may," he said sullenly.

"There is one thing that I must ask you, Erpwald," Owen said. "It
is what one may ask of one brave man concerning another. Let
Aldred's people bury him in all honour, as they will."