of that awesome curse had indeed fallen on the robbers.

Yet I know that, as I watched the ship in her trouble, in my own
mind I had been going over what was amiss, as any seaman will,
without thought of powers above. And I thought that the sharp
pitching of the vessel had cast the great bell from amidships,
where I had seen the Danes place it unsecured, against the frail
gunwale, first to one side, and then, with greater force yet,
against the other; so that it burst open gunwale and planking
below, and already she was filling when the wave came and ended
all. For these swift viking ships are built to take no heavy cargo,
and planks and timbers are but bound together by roots and withies;
so that as one stands on the deck one may feel it give and spring
to the blow of a wave, and the ship is all the swifter. But though
the outer planking is closely riveted together with good iron, that
could not withstand the crashing weight of so great a bell when it
was thus flung against it.

However that may have been--and thus I surely think it was--Bosham
bell passed not into the power of the heathen, but destroyed them;
and it lies at the bottom of the deepest reach of the haven whence
the depth and swiftness of the tide will hardly let men bring it
again. So I suppose that, profaned by heathen hands, it may no
longer call men from across the water and woodland to the church of
God.

Soon came the boats from Halfden's ship and picked up those who yet
clung to what they might of the wreck, and then ship and Danes
passed from Bosham haven, leaving the silent tower and burning
village to mark where they had been.