"But it must be," he said. He had promised his good lord and sovereign,
Baldwin of Flanders, and his word of honor he must keep. Two visits he
must pay, ere he went; and then to sea. But within the year, if he were
alive on ground, he would return, and with him ships and men, it might be
with Sweyn and all the power of Denmark. Only let them hold their own
till the Danes should come, and all would be well. And whenever he came
back, he would set a light to three farms that stood upon a hill, whence
they could be seen far and wide over the Bruneswold and over all the fen;
and then all men might know for sure that Hereward was come again.
"And nine-and-forty of them," says the chronicler, "he chose to guard
Bourne," seemingly the lands which had been his nephew Morcar's, till he
should come back and take them for himself. Godiva's lands, of Witham,
Toft and Mainthorpe, Gery his cousin should hold till his return, and send
what he could off them to his mother at Crowland.
Then they went down to the water and took barge, and laid the corpse
therein; and Godiva and Hereward sat at the dead lad's head; and Winter
steered the boat, and Gwenoch took the stroke-oar.
And they rowed away for Crowland, by many a mere and many an ea; through
narrow reaches of clear brown glassy water; between the dark-green alders;
between the pale-green reeds; where the coot clanked, and the bittern
boomed, and the sedge-bird, not content with its own sweet song, mocked
the song of all the birds around; and then out into the broad lagoons,
where hung motionless, high overhead, hawk beyond hawk, buzzard beyond
buzzard, kite beyond kite, as far as eye could see.
Pages:
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327