Praise us now if that may be."
Then I cast about for what to say, not being a great hand at speaking,
though maybe, when real occasion is, the words have come fast enough.
Howbeit, this was in coolness. But I knew that they were worthy of
praise, so I said:
"Well have ye done, every man of you, even as I knew ye would when once
ye turned to bay. And if the Danes come again, as I think they will not
speedily, fight as ye fought at Stert, and there will be victory again."
Then they cheered and shouted again, louder than before; and I made to
leap down, but they would not suffer me.
Then said I: "Let me go, for I have an errand."
Whereupon the men who held the shield, and could hear me amid the
slackening uproar, asked where I would go, and being dazed by the noise
and tumult, like an owl in daylight, I must needs answer, without
thinking; "To the great nunnery."
And the end of that foolishness was that they bore me thither, for it
was not far, with a great crowd of all sorts following and shouting. And
there must I stand with all that tail after me while they beat on the
gates in such sort that the poor nuns must have thought the Danes at
their doorstep.
But I held up my hand for silence, not thinking it would come; but as it
were by nature longing for it.
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