Now he bent over me, trying to catch the sound of my voice through the roar of the storm and the rush of the flood below us.

But I could not speak to him though I would, and it was not all drowning that ailed me, for the blow which had felled me in the fight was even now beginning to do its work.

Else had I clung to him all along, and had been safe as he was.

For he won to shore ten yards beyond its reach as the wave came.
Now I know that Olaf and our men carried me into a place under the lee of a hill, and bided there till the gale blew over.

There was a sharp pain as of a piercing weapon in my side as they did so, and after that I knew not much of being carried on to the house of Relf, the Thane of Penhurst, along a forest road where travelling was no easier for the fallen trees that lay across it.