band round the lower edge, with a short cloak of green cloth.
This was fastened with a gold brooch at the neck; a necklet
of the same metal and several gold bracelets completed his
costume, except that he wore a flat cap and sandals. Edmund
had a green tunic and cloak of deep red colour; while Egbert
was dressed in yellow with a green cloak--the Saxons being
extremely fond of bright colours.

All wore daggers, whose sheaths were incrusted in silver,
in their belts, and the ealdorman and his kinsman carried
short broad-bladed swords, while Edmund had his boar-spear.
Eldred placed in the pouch which hung at his side a
bag containing a number of silver cubes cut from a long bar
and roughly stamped. The chest was then buried again in its
place of concealment among the bushes near the hut,
Edmund placed his bows and arrows in the boat--not that in
which Edmund had fished, but the much larger and heavier
craft which Eldred and Egbert had used--and then the party,
with the hound, took their places in it. The ealdorman and
Egbert were provided with long poles, and with these they
sent the little boat rapidly through the water.

After poling their way for some eight hours they reached
the town of Norwich, to which the Danes had not yet penetrated;
here, procuring what articles they needed, they proceeded on
their journey to Croyland, making a great circuit
to avoid the Danes at Thetford. The country was for the
most part covered with thick forests, where the wild boar
and deer roamed undisturbed by man, and where many wolves
still lurked, although the number in the country had been