I know not what tales of terror I might have heard concerning the burnings of these homes.

Where the thralls' huts had been were but patches of nettles and docks hiding heaps of ashes, and the farmhouses were charred ruins.

And we saw now and then a man, skin clad and wretched, seeking shelter in the woods in all haste as we sighted him.

But I had no need to ask aught--I knew only too well what manner of tales might be told here, as everywhere in Swein's track.
As we drew nearer Colchester, and the village folk began to learn who we were, and so would gather with gifts for the good-natured Norsemen who came to release them from the tyranny of the thingmen, now and then a face that I knew would start, as it were, upon me from among a little crowd.

But none knew me, nor were they likely to do so.