come back they must find their priest waiting for them."

Then I strove to turn him again to flight with us, but I could not,
and at last he commanded me to desist and leave him. And so he gave
me his blessing, and I went, being sure that he would be slain, and
weeping therefore, for I loved him well. But I told him of Dame
Gunnhild's words, and begged him to seek her and speak with her,
for she might hide him also for a while if he would not leave the
place altogether.

So we left our home, and that was the last time I set eyes on our
hall at Bures. Then I caught up my mother hard by the dark wood
that is round the great solemn mound that we say is the tomb of
Boadicea, the Icenian queen of the men who fought against Rome. We
call it haunted, and none of us dare set foot in those woods, by
day even.

The beacon fires burnt all round us, and in every farmstead was
terror and hustle as the poor folk trembled to think what they
could mean, and some came now and then and asked my mother what
they should do.

"Bide in your homes till you must needs take to the woods," she
said; and that was wise counsel, and many were glad thereafter that
they took it, for the Danes passed them by.

Now I remember all that happened on our journey to London along the
great Roman road that runs from Colchester thither, but there is
little to tell thereof, for it was safe and we hardly hurried after
the first day. We rested at the house of a thane who was well known