of the Anglo-Saxons was on foot, the hearts of the Danes rejoiced in the prospect of good booty, even as the hearts of the coast-dwelling people rejoice when they hear that a rich wreck or a large fat whale hath been stranded near to their doors. King Svend Estrithson, of a certainty, would have gone himself[191] into England with the fleet, but his royal shield fell to the ground and broke as he was lifting it down from the wall, and a hare crossed his path as he was walking in his garden, and the priest his chaplain sneezed three times while he was saying mass before him, and he was greatly enamoured of the Princess Gyda,[192] and in consequence of all these evil omens the king resolved to stay at home, and to send his eldest son Knut into England.[193] Taking with him the royal standard of the black raven, and many jarls of high renown into his own ship, Knut began his voyage forthwith, being followed by two hundred and fifty keels, large and small. The royal ship was rich and splendid; it had thirty benches of rowers; its prow was adorned with a dragon’s head, the eyes of which were of precious stones and the tongue of red gold; and the sides and the stern of the ship glowed with burnished gold; the whole body of the ship glittered in the sun like some great and marvellous fish or some swimming dragon; and, in sooth, the whole ship was dragon-shaped. The masts and the cordage and the sails were surpassing rich and gay; the masts were covered with ivory and pearl, the cords seemed to be covered with white silk, and the sails were of many and bright colours. There were cloths of gold spread all about, and the flag that waved at the mainmast-head was all of silk and gold; and the windlass and the rudder were bepainted with blue and gold. And on board this right royal ship every warrior wore bright steel-chain armour, and carried a shield and battle-axe inlaid with gold and jewels, and each of value enough to purchase a hide of land. A few other ships there were in this great fleet only a little less splendid than that of Knut. The rest were of a coarser make, and with no adornments about them except the figure-head at the prow and the banner at the mast-head; and they varied in size and burthen from the great ship which could carry two hundred fighting men, down to the little bark which carried but ten. To speak the truth, many of the fleet were little better than fishing barks. The summer wind blew fresh and fair for England, the waves seethed before their prows, and on the morning of that glad evening at Brunn when Lord Hereward captured Torauld of Fescamp and put Ivo Taille-Bois to flight and shame, nearly the whole of the great fleet came to anchor off the Wash, and not far from the chapel of our Ladie. Knut, the king’s son, being uncertain and suspicious, like one that had treacherous plans in his own mind, despatched one of his smallest and poorest keels with a crafty and keen-sighted chief up the Wash and up the Ouse, to confer