Of all this
Hereward was well informed; for Tosti came back again to St. Omer, and
talked big. But Hereward and he had no dealings with each other. But at
last, when Tosti tried to entice some of Hereward's men to sail with him,
Hereward sent him word that if he met him, he would kill him in the
streets.
Then Tosti, who (though he wanted not for courage) knew that he was no
match for Hereward, went off to Bruges, leaving his wife and family
behind; gathered sixty ships at Ostend, went off to the Isle of Wight, and
forced the landsfolk to give him money and food. And then Harold of
England's fleet, which was watching the coast against the Normans, drove
him away; and he sailed off north, full of black rage against his brother
Harold and all Englishmen, and burned, plundered, and murdered, along the
coast of Lincolnshire, out of brute spite to the Danes who had expelled
him.
Then came news how he had got into the Humber; how Earl Edwin and his
Northumbrians had driven him out; and how he went off to Scotland to meet
Harold of Norway; and how he had put his hands between Harold's, and
become his man.
And all the while the Norman camp at St. Pierre-sur-Dive grew and grew;
and all was ready, if the wind would but change.
And so Hereward looked on, helpless, and saw these two great storm-clouds
growing,--one from north, and one from south,--to burst upon his native
land.
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