"Can we let them pass us, and so fall on them as they gain the level
land of Stert?" asked Ealhstan, saying nothing more.
"That can we," I answered. "They will keep to the road, and we can draw
back to the edge of the hill, so taking them in flank as they leave it."
For the hills bend round a little beyond the place where the road falls
into the level below Matelgar's hall.
"So be it," said the bishop. "Go you, Wulfhere, and see how near the
host is, and come back quickly."
When he was gone the bishop bade me wake the men. And at first I was for
going round, but by this thane Wislac had waked, and had been listening
to us: and he said that if I would let him wake the men he could do it
without alarm or undue noise. Only I must raise the standard and bid
them be silent. At that the bishop smiled and nodded, and I raised the
standard, and waited.
Then Wislac stood up and crowed like a cock, and instantly the men began
to turn and sit up, and as their eyes lit on the standard raised in
their midst, became broad awake, each man rousing the next sleeper if
one lay near him. And there was the bishop, finger on lip, and they were
silent.
"Verily I thought on the hard chapel stones," muttered Guthlac, the lay
brother, behind me.
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