Unless our fishers have luck, which seems unlikely, we must do as well as we can on oaten bread." Then Ethelnoth said: "There have been no fish caught today, my king." "Why, then, we will wait till the others return; and meanwhile I will hear all the news, for Ranald and Heregar will have much to tell me." So we told him all that we knew, and he asked many questions, until darkness fell.
"Why are you here, lord king ?" asked Heregar; "my hall is safe." "Your hall and countryside are safe yet because I am not there," Alfred answered, fixing his bright eyes on the thane.

"The Danes are hunting for me, and were I in any known place, thither would they come.

Therefore I said that now I choose to bide hidden.
Moreover, in this quiet and loneliness there comes to me a plan that I think will work out well; for this afternoon, as I slept, I was bidden to look for a sign that out of hopelessness should come help and victory." Just then the dogs rose up and whined at the door, as if friends came; and there were cheerful voices outside.

The door opened, and in stumbled Ethered, bearing a heavy basket of great fish, which he cast on the floor--lean green and golden pike, and red-finned roach, in a glittering, flapping heap.
"Here is supper!" he cried joyfully, "and more than supper, for each of us is thus laden.

Fish enough for an army could we have taken had we not held our hands.