Martin Lightfoot ran in, breathless, to tell
how the sails of a mighty fleet were visible from the Dunes.
"Here?" cried Hereward. "What are the fools doing down here, wandering
into the very jaws of the wolf? How will they land here? They were to have
gone straight to the Lincolnshire coast. God grant this mistake be not the
first of dozens!"
Hereward went into Torfrida's bower.
"This is an evil business. The Danes are here, where they have no
business, instead of being off Scheldtmouth, as I entreated them. But go
we must, or be forever shamed. Now, true wife, are you ready? Dare you
leave home and kin and friends, once and for all, to go, you know not
whither, with one who may be a gory corpse by this day week?"
"I dare," said she.
So they went down to Calais by night, with Torfrida's mother, and all
their jewels, and all they had in the world. And their housecarles went
with them, forty men, tried and trained, who had vowed to follow Hereward
round the world. And there were two long ships ready, and twenty good
mariners in each. So when the Danes made the South Foreland the next
morning, they were aware of two gallant ships bearing down on them, with a
great white bear embroidered on their sails.
A proud man was Hereward that day, as he sailed into the midst of the
Danish fleet, and up to the royal ships, and shouted: "I am Hereward the
Berserker, and I come to take service under my rightful lord, Sweyn, king
of England.
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