As Thurstan landed at Lynn, where he expected to see the royal ship and a good part of its attendant fleet, he was mortified to find that there were no ships there except a few Lynn barques; and, upon going into the town, he was yet more disappointed and distressed by hearing, from some good Saxons who had come in from the hamlets on the coast, that the Danish fleet had sailed away to the northward, leaving only a few of the smaller barks at the anchorage near the Wash. Sharply did he question the old Dane as to these movements. The Dane said that it was possible the prince had run a little along the north coast to pick up news, and that it was quite certain he would soon be back. More than this he would not say, except that patience was a virtue. Some of our Saxons went almost mad with impatience; but on the next day they received intelligence that the fleet had returned to the anchorage off the chapel of our Ladie, and on the day next after that, Knut, with six of his largest ships, sailed up the Wash. In his run to the northward, if he had not picked up much news, he had picked up every English ship or barque that he found afloat, and he had plundered every defenceless village or township that lay near to that coast. He now cast his anchor a long way before he came to Lynn, and instead of proceeding to that good town to meet the English prelates and nobles, he sent up a messenger to summon them on board his own ship. At this the Abbat of Ely was much vexed and startled; and he said to himself, “Who shall tell me that this is not a plot, and that the Danes will not seize us and carry us off, or even deliver us up to the Normans?” but nearly all those who had accompanied him from Ely despaired of the salvation of England without Danish assistance, and were eager to go on ship-board and meet the prince in the way it pleased him to prescribe, and Thurstan grew ashamed of his fears and suspicions. Other good men, however, had their suspicions as well as the Lord Abbat; and when he embarked in the small Danish craft which had been left waiting for the envoy at Lynn, many trusty Saxons of the township and vicinage would absolutely go with him, and every bark or boat that could swim was crowded by the bold Lynn mariners, and rowed down to the Wash.