At that wedding there were a surprise and a pleasure for me which Jefan had prepared.  He had heard of a vessel new come to Swansea, where the Danes are, and he had sent thither to learn what she was.  And when he heard, he bade her captain to this feast to meet me.  And so it came to pass that when we landed I saw two men in the Danish array standing behind the Welsh nobles, and I seemed to know them.  One was tall and grim and scarred, and the other broad of shoulder and white of hair and beard.  They were Thorleif and old Thrond, come from Ireland to see their friends in this land, and so Jefan’s guests.

So that was a great wedding, in which I had the least part, being overlooked, as mostly happens with a bridegroom.  And after it we passed home again to peace and happiness in the old hall in the land of Wessex, and there none will care to follow me.  It is the troublous part of a man’s life that makes the story to all but himself.  He is glad enough when it is over and there is no more danger left of which to make a tale.

When I first came back to Caerleon I had some news to hear from the Mercian border, and that was nothing more or less than that after all Offa had stretched out his hand to grasp that realm which Quendritha had plotted to give him; for he had gathered his levies, and marched eastward into East Anglia.  There was none to oppose him, and he took it, and so reigned from the Wye to the sea, the greatest king who had ever sat on an English throne.

And Quendritha was dead.  That which her daughter had boded for her as she left the palace had come to pass, and she had gone.  She had never set eyes on her husband again, and never heard how that which she planned had come to pass.

That death seemed to take the last doubt of our peace from us; but now Sighard would no more go back to his lands.

“I was Ethelbert’s thane and his father’s; I will not hold from Offa.  Let me come back with you now until I know what I can do.”

So when our wedding was over he crossed with us to Wessex, and there for a time he bided.  Then came a message from Thetford that the widowed queen, Ethelbert’s mother, would speak with him, and without delay he went to her.  Offa had left her in peace in her own house; but now she would go to Crowland, that she might be with her who should have been her daughter, and thither Sighard took her.  Then he went to see what had happened with his own place, and found it untouched.  Offa, when he took the realm, had at least proved that he had no mind to enrich himself with lesser spoils.

So Sighard sold his right of succession, and all else that was his own in East Anglia, and thereafter bought a place for himself near us; and there he lives now, well loved by all and honoured.  Many and kind were the messages which he brought back from the queen to me and to Hilda, whom she had loved, rejoicing that the way to Sutton had at least brought happiness to us two.