Little, therefore, had Olaf to say to Ethelred when they met, nor
would he go on board the English ship, but Ethelred must come to
him. Eadmund was at his father's side, and his face was very
wrathful, for he felt even as did Olaf.

"London is ours already," Ethelred said. "Wherefore I would join
you."

"London by this time may be in other hands," answered Olaf; "but we
shall see when we get there. Now must there be no more time lost
but we must make all speed up the river, tarrying nowhere."

So we sailed on. When we came to Greenwich there were no Danes
there, nor any Danish ships. I went ashore in a boat, and asked the
men I saw what was become of them. And they told me that Thorkel's
fleet had sailed northward on Swein's death, and that the thingmen
whom he had left in the place had gone to London.

"That is as I thought," said Olaf. "Now there will be more trouble
in driving them out than there has been in letting them in."

When we came at last in sight of London Bridge I knew that Olaf was
right, for since the Danes had gained the city they had not been
idle. They had built a great fort on the Southwark side of the
river, girt with a wide moat, and all the stronger that the walls
thus surrounded were partly of timber and stone. The road from
across London Bridge runs through this fort, so that one might by
no means pass over it until the place was won. And at the other end
of the bridge the old Roman walls of London itself were far too
strong for our force to take by storm.