Gerent needs you, and I have a letter to your king." I asked him no more at this time, but I took him straightway to Ina, travel stained as he was.

He had but two men with him, and they were Saxons he had asked for from Herewald the ealdorman as he passed through Glastonbury in haste.
So Ina took the letter, and opened it, and as he read it his face grew troubled, so that my fear that I had not yet heard the worst grew on me.

Then he handed it to me without a word.
"Gerent of the Britons, to Ina of Wessex .-- I pray you send me Oswald, Owen's foster son, for I need him sorely.

On my head be it if a hair of him is harmed.

He who bears this is Jago, whom you know, and he will tell my need and my loneliness.