Fifty of his own housecarles would go, and Relf's twenty.

And they were to be ready two hours before dawn, as he meant to surprise the outlaws in the village at the first light.
Then he praised the men, and had ale brought out for them, and so recovered his good temper, and at last he said to Olaf with a great laugh: "Verily you may go away and boast that you are the first man who has brought his armed followers inside Pevensea walls without leave, since the days when OElla and Cissa forced the Welsh to let them in.

Now I wot that Ethelred has a friend who must be reckoned with." "Nay, but you would see the men," said Olaf.
"Aye, and I have seen them," answered the earl grimly.
When we sat down in the hall that night I was next to the maiden Sexberga, Relf's daughter, at the high table.

She was very different from the great ladies of the court, who were all that I knew.

I tried to assure her that her home would be safe, and I promised her many things in order to see her smile, and to please her.
Yet when I went down to the ships presently, for none of us slept within Wulfnoth's walls, I was glad that there was no light of burning houses over Penhurst woods, as yet..