But I, clad as I was in the rags of the finery I had worn at the feast whence I was taken, shrank within myself, ashamed to meet the gazes that must be turned on me presently, for I saw that we were going on up the steep ascent to mix with the crowd on the summit of the great knoll.
Now, by this time the long ride had brought back my senses to me, and I began to take more thought for myself and what might be meant by this journey.

At first I had been so stunned and dazed by the release--as my removal from the dungeon seemed to me--that I had been content to feel the light and air play about me once more; but that strangeness had worn off now, and the consciousness of being yet a prisoner took hold of me.
My guards had ridden silent, either in obedience to command, or because a Saxon is not often given to talk when under some responsibility, so that I had learnt nothing from them thus far.

But as we turned our horses' heads up the steep, a longing at last came over me to speak, and I turned to a gray-bearded man who had ridden silently at my right hand all the morning and asked him plainly whither he was taking me, and for answer he pointed up the hill, saying nothing.
Then I asked him why I must be taken there, and, grimly enough, he replied in two words, "For trial", and so I knew that the Great Moot [i] was summoned, and that presently I should know the whole meaning of this thing that had befallen me.

Then my spirits began to rise, for, being conscious of no wrongdoing, I looked forward to speedy release with full proof of innocence.
Then I began to look about me and to note the crowds of people whom the Moot had gathered.

So many and various were these that I and my guards passed with little notice among those who toiled up the hill with us, the crowd growing thicker as we neared the edge of the first great square platform on the hilltop.