"Is this really a Saxon ship," he asked, "as its flag testifies ?" "It is so," Edmund replied; "it is my vessel, and I am an ealdorman of King Alfred.

We have been chasing the Danish pirates, but this storm having arisen, we were blown down the French coast and forced to seek shelter here." "The governor bids you welcome," the officer said, "and bade me invite you to land." "That will I gladly; the more so since my ship has suffered some damage in the gale, her bulwarks having been partly shattered; and it will need a stay of a few days here to repair her for sea.

Will you tell the governor that in a short time I will land with my kinsman Egbert and accept his hospitality ?" An hour later Edmund and Egbert landed and were at once conducted to the governor, who welcomed them cordially.
They found there many whom they had known at the court of King Alfred.
The wealthier men, the bishops and thanes, had for the most part journeyed to Paris or to other towns in the interior to escape the dreaded Northmen; but there were many detained at Havre from want of funds to journey farther.
"It is a sad pity," the governor said as they talked over the troubled state of Western Europe, "that your English king and our Frankish monarch did not make common cause against these sea robbers.

They are the enemies of mankind.

Not only do they ravage all our coasts, but they have entered the Mediterranean, and have plundered and ravaged the coasts of Provence and Italy, laying towns under ransom, burning and destroying." "I would that I could meet some of their ships on their way back from Italy," Edmund said.