The merchants had
not completed their cargo of tin. Hereward offered to make up their loss
to them if they would set sail at once; and they, feeling that the place
would be for some time to come too hot to hold them, and being also in
high delight, like honest Ostmen, with Hereward's prowess, agreed to sail
straight for Waterford, and complete their cargo there. But the tide was
out. It was three full hours before the ship could float; and for three
full hours they waited in fear and trembling, expecting the Cornishmen to
be down upon them in a body every moment, under which wholesome fear some
on board prayed fervently who had never been known to pray before.
CHAPTER IV.
HOW HEREWARD TOOK SERVICE WITH RANALD, KING OF WATERFORD.
The coasts of Ireland were in a state of comparative peace in the middle
of the eleventh century. The ships of Loghlin, seen far out at sea, no
longer drove the population shrieking inland. Heathen Danes, whether
fair-haired Fiongall from Norway, or brown-haired Dubgall from Denmark
proper, no longer burned convents, tortured monks for their gold, or (as
at Clonmacnoise) set a heathen princess, Oda, wife of Thorgill, son of
Harold Harfager, aloft on the high altar to receive the homage of the
conquered. The Scandinavian invaders had become Christianized, and
civilized also,--owing to their continual intercourse with foreign
nations,--more highly than the Irish whom they had overcome.
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