Now go and bring Hertha to me." She turned to her work, and I went out across the courtyard.
Already the wains stood there, the teams of sleepy oxen tossing their long horns in the glare of torches.

The church bell was clanging the alarm of fire to bring home the men from field or forest if any were abroad so late, for it was an hour after sunset, and there was no moon yet.
The gray horse that my father gave me a year agone stood ready saddled in the stall when I came to the stables.

I went and loosed him, while a groom saw me and ran to help, and as I swung into the saddle I saw his face marked with new lines across his forehead.
"Do you fly first, master ?" he said, with strange meaning in his voice.
"I go to Wormingford," I answered.

"Likely enough, therefore, that I fly last," and I laughed.
"Aye, let me go, master, let me go," he said.

"It is like that the Danes are on the road." "Not yet," I said, touched by question and offer alike.