I said that Elfric should go, and he was most anxious that I should be freed from the clutches of the Danes.

And as we spoke thereof, neither of us being willing to give way--for, indeed, it did not seem to me that it mattered much whether I stayed, while Elfric had his own family, who would be sorely terrified for him--Thorleif decided it.
"Elfric the thane must go," he said, "for men will listen to him.
That is the main thing, after all.
"We will not harm your cousin, thane, and you may be easy in your mind." "Nay," said Thrond, "I think that Dorchester would pay ransom for the thane willingly.

Best let the lad go." "This is more a question of ransoming the town and countryside, foster father," answered Thorleif.

"The thane shall go." In a quarter of an hour he was gone, the Danes giving him back his weapons and mounting him on his own horse.

He told me that he had no doubt that I should be freed by noon tomorrow, and so we parted in good spirits, as far as ourselves were concerned.
As to the trouble that had fallen on the land, that was another matter.