Thereat Neot was silent, and asked me no more. Hereafter I learned that hatred of race had made the hatred of religion bitter, until the last seemed to be the greatest hatred of all, adding terror and bitterest cruelty to the struggle for mastery. Presently, before it was very late, Neot rose up and spoke to Odda, bidding him farewell. Then he came to me, and said: "Tell the king that we have spoken together, and give him this message if you will that I go to my place in Cornwall, and shall be there for a while." Then he passed to Thord, and took his hard hand and said: "Good are words that come from an honest heart. I have learned a lesson tonight where I thought to have learned none." "I marvel that you needed to learn that," Thord said gruffly. "So do I, friend," answered Neot; "but one is apt to go too far in a matter which one has at heart, sometimes before one is aware. Then is a word in season welcome." Then he thanked Harek for his songs, and went, the Saxons bowing as he passed down the long table with Odda. "That is a wise man and a holy," said Thord. "Ay, truly," answered the thane who had told me about him. "I mind when he and Alfred the king were the haughtiest and most overbearing of princes. But when Neot found out that his pride and wrath and strength were getting the mastery in his heart, he thrust himself down there to overcome them. So he grows more saintlike every day, and has wrought a wondrous change in the king himself. He is the only man to whom Alfred will listen in reproof." "That is likely," I said, not knowing aught of the holy bishops who were the king's counsellors; "kings brook little of that sort. But why does he wear yon strange dress?" "He has taken vows on him, and is a hermit," the thane said; but I did not know what he meant at the time. It was some Saxon way, I supposed, and cared not to ask more. So it came to pass that I met one of the two most wonderful men in England, and I was to see the other on the morrow. Yet I had no thought that I should care to stay in the land, for it seemed certain from what Odda told me that peace would be made, and peace was not my business nor that of my men. So in a way I was sorry that the war was at an end, seeing that we came for fighting and should have none. Then came a thought to me that made me laugh at myself. I was glad, after all, that we were not going sword foremost into Exeter town, because of the Lady Thora, who was there. I suppose it would not have been reasonable had I not had that much thought for the brave maiden whom I had helped out of danger once. Chapter VI. Alfred the King.