The ships might sail at the moment their men were on board if they were beaten back.
About that time the farther houses in Weymouth began to burn, and I heard the Wessex war cry rise, hoarse and savage, as the foes met.
There were more of our men coming over the hill, and it was good to me to see that the Danes, who watched as eagerly as I, waxed silent and anxious.

One said that there seemed a many folk hereabout, as if the gathering against them was more than they cared for.
Now I did not know what I had best wish for.

Sometimes I thought that if our men were beaten back they might come to terms, and I should be freed.

And it being a thing impossible that I could hope that Wessex was to be beaten, and next to impossible that I should so much as imagine she could, I mostly wondered what would happen to me when the Danes had to seek the ships.

But as the noise of the fight drew nearer, and the black smoke from burning houses grew thicker, I forgot myself, and only wished I was with Elfric in that struggle; and at last I could stand it no longer.
"Let me go, men," I said; "I cannot bide here." "We must, and you have to," said the friendly man.