Edmund was silent. The very possibility of a state of
things in which there should be no serfs, and when all men
should be free and equal, had never occurred to him; but he
had a deep respect for his father, who bore indeed the
reputation of being one of the wisest and most clear-headed of
the nobles of East Anglia, and it seemed to him that this
strange and novel doctrine contained much truth in it. Still
the idea was as strange to him as it would have been to the
son of a southern planter in America half a century ago. The
existence of slaves seemed as much a matter of course as that
of horses or dogs, and although he had been accustomed to
see from time to time freedom bestowed upon some favourite
serf as a special reward for services, the thought of a general
liberation of the slaves was strange and almost bewildering,
and he lay awake puzzling over the problem long after his
father and kinsman had fallen asleep.





CHAPTER II: THE BATTLE OF KESTEVEN



The following morning early the little party started.
The great chest was dug up from its place of concealment,
and they resumed their ordinary dresses. The ealdorman
attired himself in a white tunic with a broad purple