It is his ill counsel that has brought Swein the Dane on us.
We have to pay for the Hock-tide slayings {3}." "We had no share in that" I said.
"No, because half our folk are Danes, more or less, some of the men of Ingvar and Guthrum.

But Swein will not care for that--they are all English to him." "What will you do, then ?" I asked, growing half wild that she should stand there quietly and plan nought.
"These folk will side with Swein presently, when they find that he is the stronger, and then the old kinship will wake in them, and the Wessex king will be nought to their minds.

Then will be peace here, for the Danes will sweep on to Mercia and London.

Do you go to Ethelred the Unredy--and I abiding here shall be the safer in the end, and Hertha with me." "But peace has not come yet" I said.
"I can hide until it does come," she said.

And then, for my face must have shown all the doubt that I felt, she spoke very kindly to me.