No man's
man am I, either free or unfree, but son of escaped thralls who are dead
long ago. Therefore am I outlaw also by all rights, and would fain
follow you. And it seems to me that you will need one to mind your steed."
Now this was a long speech for the collier, who, as I had learnt, could
hold his tongue: and we were short-handed also, with all these horses.
Therefore I told him that it should be as he would, for service offered
freely in this way was like to be faithful, seeing that there had been
trial on both sides. But I gave him four silver pennies, which he would
have refused, but that I bade him think of them as fasten pennies, which
contented him well.
This, too, pleased both Alswythe and Wulfhere, who were glad of the
addition to our party. So we rode on. But many were the far-off columns
of smoke we looked back on beyond Parret, before the hills rose behind
us and hid them.
CHAPTER XI. EALHSTAN THE BISHOP.
It was in the late afternoon when we rode into Glastonbury town, past
the palisadings of the outer works, and then among cottages, and here
and there a timber house of the better sort, till we came to the great
abbey. It was not so great then as now, nor is it now as it will be, for
ever have pious hands built so that those who come after may have room
to add if they will.
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