supper, I hope, for Egbert and I are as hungry as wolves, for
we have had nothing since we started before sunrise."

"I have plenty to eat, father; but you will have to wait till
it is cooked, for it was no use putting it over the fire until I
knew that you would return; but there is a good fire, and you
will not have to wait long. And how has it fared with you,
and what is the news?"

"The news is bad, Edmund. The Danes are ever receiving
reinforcements from Mercia, and scarce a day passes but
fresh bands arrive at Thetford, and I fear that ere long East
Anglia, like Northumbria, will fall into their clutches. Nay,
unless we soon make head against them they will come to
occupy all the island, just as did our forefathers."

"That were shame indeed," Edmund exclaimed. "We
know that the people conquered by our ancestors were
unwarlike and cowardly; but it would be shame indeed were
we Saxons so to be overcome by the Danes, seeing moreover
that we have the help of God, being Christians, while the
Danes are pagans and idolaters."

"Nevertheless, my son, for the last five years these heathen
have been masters of Northumbria, have wasted the
whole country, and have plundered and destroyed the
churches and monasteries. At present they have but made a
beginning here in East Anglia; but if they continue to flock
in they will soon overrun the whole country, instead of having,
as at present, a mere foothold near the rivers except for