"Lads! old comrades! will you stand by me if I need you? Will you follow
Hereward, as hundreds have followed him already, if he will only go
before?"
"We will, we will."
"I shall be back ere morning. What you have to do, I will tell you then."
"Stop and eat, but for a quarter of an hour."
Then Hereward swore a great oath, by oak and ash and thorn, that he would
neither eat bread nor drink water while there was a Norman left in Bourne.
"A little ale, then, if no water," said Azer.
Hereward laughed, and rode away,
"You will not go single-handed against all those ruffians," shouted the
old man after him. "Saddle, lads, and go with him, some of you, for very
shame's sake."
But when they galloped after Hereward, he sent them back. He did not know
yet, he said, what he would do. Better that they should gather their
forces, and see what men they could afford him, in case of open battle.
And he rode swiftly on.
When he came within the lands of Bourne it was dark.
"So much the better," thought Hereward. "I have no wish to see the old
place till I have somewhat cleaned it out."
He rode slowly into the long street between the overhanging gables. At the
upper end he could see the high garden walls of his mother's house, and
rising over them the great hall, its narrow windows all ablaze with light.
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