"O my lord the king!" she cried. "I thought that yon sad-faced man in Denewulf's house was our king maybe, so wondrous proud are his ways, and so strange things they hear him speak when he sleeps. But now I am glad, for I have seen the king and kissed his hand, and, lo, the sight of him is good. Ay, but glad will all the countryside be to know that you live." Then I knew not what to say; but Heregar beckoned to me, saying: "Come, leave her her joy; it were cruel to spoil it, and maybe she will never know her mistake." So we rode on, and Heregar called Dudda, asking him if he knew Denewulf's cottage; while in the track stood the witch, blessing her king as eagerly as she had cursed her gossip just now. "I know not the path, though I have heard of the cottage," Dudda said; "but it will be strange if I cannot find a way to the place." He took us carefully into the fen for some way until we passed through a thicket and came to the edge of a mere, and there were five men who bore fishing nets and eel spears, which had not been used, as one might suppose, seeing that the ice was nigh a foot thick after the thaw and heavy frost again. And those two men who came first were Ethelnoth, the Somerset ealdorman, and young Ethered of Mercia. It was strange to see those nobles bearing such burdens; but we knew that we had found the king. They saw us, and halted; but Heregar waved his hand, and they came on, for they knew him. It would be hard to say which party was the more pleased to meet the other. "Where is the king?" we asked. "Come with us, and we will take you to him," Ethered said. "But supperless you must be tonight. We have nought in the house, and nothing can we catch." Then I was surprised, and said: "Is it so bad as that here? In our land, when the ice is at its thickest we can take as much fish as we will easily." "Save us from starvation, Ranald," said Ethered, laughing ruefully, "and we will raise a big stone heap here in your honour." "Kolgrim will show you," I said; "let me go to the king." "I am a great ice fisherman," said Harek; "let me go also." Then Heregar laughed in lightness of heart. "Ay, wizard, go also. There will be charms of some sort needed before Ethered sees so much as a scale." Whereon they dismounted, and Kolgrim took his axe from his saddle bow, asking where the river was, while he wondered that such a simple matter as breaking a hole in the ice and dropping a line among the hungry fish, who would swarm to the air, had not been thought of. We had not yet learned that such a winter as this comes but seldom to the west of England, and the thanes knew nothing of our northern ways.