"We shall not need it." Erpwald said no more, and Owen came back to me, closing the door after him again.

There was another door, seldom used, from this chamber to the back of the house where the servants had their quarters, and through that he took me, wrapped in such warm furs as he could find.

Then he went to the stables, and in the dark, for he would not attract the notice of Erpwald's men, who were round the ale in the courtyard, he saddled my forest pony, and another good horse which he was wont to ride with my father at times.

He did not take the thane's own horse, as it would be known, and he would risk no questions as to how he came by it.
Then we rode away by the back gate, and when the darkness closed on us as we passed along the well-known road towards Chichester the voices of the foe who revelled in our courtyard came loudly to us.
And I did but think it part of the rejoicing of that day as I listened.
Through the warm summer rain we came before daylight had fully broken to Bosham, not passing through Chichester, for the gates would be closed.

And just before the sun rose, Dicul the priest came from his house to the little church and saw us sitting in the porch, waiting him, while the horses cropped the grass on the little green outside the churchyard, hobbled in forest fashion.
He bade us back to his house, and there I fell asleep straightway, with the tiredness that comes suddenly to a child.