Then he told me that even now the horses were ready, and that he was about to abandon the place, going to the house of that thane of whom I had told him.

And I said that I would go some way with him, and then return to join the levy, making known my ill-luck with Osric.
"Ho!" said he; "it was well he sent you away, as it seems to me." That was the word of the old crone, I remembered, that it should be so.
Then came a soft touch on my arm, and on turning I saw Alswythe standing by me, wrapped in a long cloak, and ready.

And neither I nor she thought shame that I should lay my arm round her, and kiss her there, with the grim old housecarle standing by and pretending to look out over Stert, where the light of my fires shone above the trees.
"Heregar, my loved one, what does it all mean ?" she said, trembling a little.

"Have they come ?" I folded my arm more closely round her, and would have answered, but that Wulfhere did so for me.
"Aye, lady, and it is to Heregar that we owe our safety, for he has been down to Stert and warned us all." At that my love crept closer to me, as it were to thank me.

Then she said: "Will there be fighting?
And will my father have to fight ?" "Aye, lady," said Wulfhere again, "as a good Saxon should." "Must I go from here ?" she asked again; and I told her that the house would be burnt, maybe, in an hour or so.
At that she shivered, and tried not to weep, being very brave.
"Where must we go ?" she said, with a little tremble in her voice.
I told her where we would take her, and then she cried out that she must bide near at hand lest her father should be hurt, and none to tend him.
And Wulfhere and I tried a little to overpersuade her, but then a groom came to say that all was ready.
And, truly, no time must be lost, if we would get off safely.
Then I said that it would be safe to go to Bridgwater, for then we should be behind the levy, and that the Danes must cut through that before reaching us.