And therefore she parted them, not easily at first, for none had touched them for long; and there before me was the opening of a low stone-sided-and-roofed passage, leading to the heart of the mound.
"Enter," she said.

"This is our hiding place in sorest need." "Hardly dare I do so.

It is ill to disturb the mighty dead," I answered.
"The dead queen has sheltered us helpless women well," she answered.

"She is not disturbed, for this is not her resting place." So I went in, stooping double, for the stone passage was very low.
I cannot tell whence the stone came, nor why the place was made unless it were to receive some chiefs of the Iceni, whose bones were gone had they ever been there, for there was a stone chamber in the mound's heart, fitted with stone seats and stone beds, as it were, and four people might well live in that place, for it was cool in summer and warm in winter, but very silent.
I spoke not a word till we were in the sunshine again, and then I shivered.
"I could not have entered that place alone," I said.
"Gunnhild had no fear thereof, nor had I as a little child.

Three times we bided there for days, while the Danes pillaged and burnt all around us, and were safe." It was some old secret handed down to Gunnhild that had taught her how to find the passage entrance.