Now she came towards me swiftly, and did not wait for me to speak first.
"What will you at this hour, Redwald ?" she said.
"Nought but pressing need bade me come thus," I answered.

"The levy is broken, and the Danes are on the way to Colchester.

My mother flies to London, and you and Hertha must do likewise." "So your father and hers are slain," she said, looking fixedly at me, and standing very still.
"How know you that ?" I asked sharply, for I had told the steward nothing.
"By your face, Redwald," she said; "you were but a boy two days agone, now you have a man's work on your hands, and you will do it.
Who bade you ride here ?" "No one," I said, wondering, "needs must that I should come." "That is as I thought," she said; "but we cannot fly." "Why not ?" "Because the sickness that your mother feared is on Hertha, and she cannot go." Now I was ready to weep, but that would be of no use.
"Is there danger to her ?" I said, and I could not keep my voice from shaking, for Hertha was all the sister I had, and she in time would be nearer than that to me.
"None," answered the dame, "save she runs risk of chill.

For she has been fevered for a while." "Which is most to be feared," said I, "chill, or risk of Danish cruelty ?" She made no answer, but asked me what were my mother's plans.

And when I said that she would fly to Ethelred the king, the old nurse laughed strangely to herself.
"Then you go to the very cause of all this trouble," she said.
"Truly the king's name should be 'the Unredy', for rede he has none.