Then there was a murmur, but not all of assent; though I could see that many would side with us.  Whereon Wislac rose up slowly, and looking round, said: 

“I am a stranger, but having been present at the beating the other day, yonder, am minded to see if I may yet go home on the winning side.  And it would be shame, even as these two thanes have said, not to give a guest a chance to have his pleasure.  I pray you, thanes, pluck up spirit, and follow the ealdorman.”

Now, though Wislac’s words seemed idle at the beginning, there was that in his last words which brought several of the younger thanes to their feet, looking angrily at him, and one asked if he meant to call that assembly “nidring”.

“Not I,” said Wislac, smiling peacefully, “seeing that you have done naught to deserve that foul name; but being a beaten man, as I said, I need a chance to prove that I am not ‘nidring’ myself, so please you.”

And they could not take offence at his tone, yet they saw well what he meant; and this in the end touched them very closely, for they were in the same case as he, but with more right, being of Somerset, to wipe out their defeat.  But maybe there would have been a quarrel if Eanulf had not spoken.

“Peace, thanes,” he said.  “Heregar is right, and we must avenge our dead.  Wulfhere is right, and for the land’s sake we must give these Danes a lesson to bide at home.  Wislac is right, and this defeat must be wiped out.  Now say if you will help me to raise the levy afresh?”

“Aye, we will,” said the thanes, but there was not that heartiness in their tones that one might have looked for.

In truth, though, it was no want of courage, but the thought of the easier plan of waiting, that held them back.

Then Ealhstan the Bishop rose up and faced us all, with his eyes shining, and his right hand gripping his crosier so tightly that his knuckles shone white.

“What, my sons, shall it be said of you, as it is said of us Dorset folk, that you let the Danes bide in your land and work their worst on you and yours?  I tell you that since we went back and saw, as we still see, their track over our homes, our folk burn to take revenge on them; and I, being what I am, think no wrong of counselling revenge on heathen folk.  Listen, for ye are men.”

And then he told us in burning words such a tale of what must be were these heathen to have their way, such things that he himself had seen and known after Charnmouth fight, that we would fain at last be up and drive them away without waiting for the levy.

And at last he said: 

“Eanulf, this will I do.  I will gather the Dorset levy and lead them to your help, and so will we make short work of these heathen.”

Then all the thanes shouted that they would not be behind in the matter; and so their cool Saxon blood was fired to that white rage which is quenched but in victory or death.