fleet ready made," he said. "Let us sail to his place and speak
with him."

That was true, and the ships that Wulfnoth had were the king's by
right. They were the last of the fleet that England had had but
five years ago--and her mightiest.

Now it happened that I was to see much of this Earl Wulfnoth before
we had done with him, so I will say at once how he came to have the
king's ships, and how it was that we must ask his help for
Ethelred--or rather why he had not given it freely.

It was the fault of Brihtric, Edric Streone's brother, who had some
private grudge against him, and would ruin him if possible. So he
accused Wulfnoth of treachery to Ethelred, and that being the thing
that the king always dreaded from day to day--seeing maybe that he
was not free from blame in that matter himself--so prevailed that
the earl was outlawed. Whereon he fled to the fleet, and sailed
away with all the ships that would follow him.

Then Brihtric chased him with the rest, and met with storm and
shipwreck on the rugged southern coasts. And through the storm fell
on him Wulfnoth, and beat him and scattered or took the ships the
storm had spared. Brihtric left the rest to their own devices, and
the shipmen brought them back into the Thames. There the Danes took
them presently, and that was the end of England's fleet.

But Wulfnoth turned viking; and would have nought to do with
Ethelred after that. His Sussex earldom was beyond reach of attack
through the great Andred's-weald forests that keep its northern