“If we do not come, what then?”

“Doubtless we shall burn Sutton walls.  A curse lies thereon now, and it may be that we shall wreak it.”

With that he leaped across the brook which ran by the road, and passed into shelter.  Then I turned to Erling, who waited for me across the road, and asked if he had understood what was said.

“Ay, all,” he answered.  “It is good enough; otherwise I might have put in a word.  This Jefan has the name for an honest man, as I have ever heard.”

“The one thing about it that I mislike is that we seem to be running away from hearsay,” I said.

“Mighty little hearsay was that which set Sighard flying across the border, I take it,” Erling answered.  “Seeing that you have no more to keep you here, it is about time we went also.  We have foes we cannot see, and are in a land of which we know not a foot.  Jefan will help us to ken the foe, and will guide us when we need it.”

Now of all things which I had in my mind, the first seemed to me to be that I must ride eastward with Hilda and see the mother of the slain king, to give what account I might of that charge she had laid on me.  But if Sighard had been prevented from getting homeward, it was certain that so should I. Wherefore we should not be watched for on any westward road, and that way, at least, was open.  Thence we might find our way when the days wore on and Sighard could travel.  That remained to be seen; and, take it all round, I was more easy than I had been.

So also seemed the archbishop presently, when I told him the message I had had.  And he agreed with us that we might do worse than go to Jefan at once with Hilda; matters being as they were, it was not safe in Mercia.

“He is a good prince and honourable,” he said; “and if I say that, I speak of one who is the foe of our folk.  He has suffered much from us, and has cause for enmity with Offa—­and maybe with Quendritha.  I can say plainly now that her restless longing for power has kept our armies busy many a time when they had been better at rest.”

He sighed; and then came somewhat which turned our thoughts, and no more was said at the time, either of Quendritha or of my doings.  For now we were in sight of the palace on its little hill, and from its gates came toward us a train of folk, guarded by men of Offa’s own housecarls in front and rear, as if those who travelled were no common wayfarers.  In the midst of all was a closed horse litter, beside which rode two or three veiled and hooded ladies and a priest.  Save the captain of the guards, there was no thane with the party, and but a few pack horses followed them, and I thought it would be some abbess, perhaps, who was leaving the palace.

We drew up on the roadside to let this train pass, though I suppose that by all right the archbishop might have claimed the crown of the way for himself, had he been other than the humble-minded man that he was.  As the leading guards passed us they saluted in all due form; and then one of the ladies knew who was here, and bent to the litter, and so turned and spoke to the captain, who straightway called a halt, and came, helm in hand, to the archbishop, praying him to speak with the lady who was in his charge.