There waited for them the Danish axes, and an axeman behind a wall
is equal to two men below him.

I longed to be beside Eadmund, whom I could see now and then, and
ever where the fighting was fiercest; but Olaf bade me be patient.
There would be fighting enough for me presently, he said.

"You will see that we shall have to take the bridge, and so cut the
Danish force in two. Then from the bridge we have but to fight our
way either into the fort or into the town."

Presently our men gave back. The earthworks were too strong for
them. Then I asked again that I might go.

"If you must fall, it shall be at my side, cousin," said Olaf,
laying his hand on my arm. "Eadmund does not need you."

For now he and his men were coming back to the ships, having won
nought but knowledge of the strength of the fort. The Danes would
not leave their walls to follow the retreating English, though
Eadmund halted just beyond bow shot, and waited as if to challenge
them to fight in the open.

Now by this time the tide was almost full, and the stream of the
flood was slackening. And it seemed as if one might easily scale
the bulwarks of the great low-timbered bridge from the foredeck of
a ship. Ethelred saw that, and as soon as his men were on board
again the word was passed that attack on the bridge should be made
by every vessel that could reach it.