So they turned them north again and held on till they came upon a town. This time, not entering any hostel, they bought food and took it with them, with fodder for the beasts, and found a small wood that stood on the outskirts. Feargus here made Torfrida her tent again and set a fence around about with prickly whin and other bushes and brought the two beasts inside. And he lay down by his own horse and watched and ever and again rose and walked round and saw that all was still, but slept not, such little sleep as he got being by day when Torfrida could sit watching. So it fell that he was in sore need of rest and they stayed there three days. As soon as morning broke Torfrida would rise and go outside and watch while Feargus fell to sleeping, and sweet was that rest to him. On the fourth day while Torfrida was watching she noticed that some men of the village were looking down upon them. At length, seeing no one stirring, they drew nearer and beheld Feargus, and gazed at him, agape at his thew and sinew. “Now, good master, tell us what manner of man is this, for never yet saw we the like of him—surely he is more of warrior than of leech.” “Go ye not too near unto him, lest ye disturb his sleep, for little might the twain of ye do against him ah ye hurtled with him.” “Nay, young master, but we are many; he is one.” “Nay, I see but two of ye.” “Aye, but others fill the forest and they have sent us to ask of him whether it be true as they say, that he is Feargus through whom king Penda was slain, for so we are told by men of the North English.” Then Torfrida turned and went within the barrier, saying, “Surely he will best answer you himself.” And so she said to Feargus in Gaelic, “Arise, beloved one, for our troubles seem but begun; arise and lift with thee thy bow with arrow ready, for our foes are about us on every hand. Safer I doubt we would be among the wolves of the west than here.” Then Feargus arose and stood before his enemies. “What dost want?” said he, “that I may not be left in peace here in the greenwood?” “They say thou art Feargus the Pict, the captain of king Penda.” “And what if I be Feargus: what is’t that I owe thee?—nothing. Forget ye not that Osbert would not wait but forced me to fight, and so we both broke tryst with the king at the last, yet I served him right well—as well as the best of ye his own kin; and my men, who knew that Feargus would never desert his master, thought me dead and all died for Penda and stood to him saving his name when his own Mercians fled and left him. And what did Feargus himself do? Did not the king say that he it was who won the fight with king Sigmund by Trent water and at Mansfield town, and he had no small share in the victory at Camulodunum over king Anna of the East Anglians. So what is’t that he owes ye?” “Aye, but Feargus lost the cause at the last, so that all his deeds were of little profit. He is a traitor and we will slay him.”