The old sea-rover was silent, and the other Danes pretended not to understand what the Saxon lord said. Abbat Thurstan told the prince that of a surety the Saxons in the Camp of Refuge could continue to defend themselves; but that they could do still better if the Danes would spare them some arms and other warlike harness, and remain for a while in the Wash and in the rivers which empty themselves into it, in order to co-operate with the Saxons. Knut, who well knew that there was nothing to be picked up in those waters, shook his head, and said that his own plan was the best, and could not be altered; and that, touching the matter of arms and harness, he had none to spare, but that he would send over to the Netherlanders’ country and buy, _if_ the Saxons would give him the money. Here the abbat and the Saxon lords were silent. But when Knut spoke of the great losses which the Danes had suffered in the foundering of their return fleet the year before,[194] Thurstan reddened and said, “The Jarl Osbiorn acted a traitorous part, and hath been treated as a traitor by his brother and king. That loss was the direct judgment of Heaven! The fleet was loaded with the spoils of England and with the money taken from the Norman for betraying the English! Prince, and jarls all! if ye be come to do as Osbiorn did last year, I say look to your fleet, and look to the health of your own souls!” Hereupon Knut and his great chiefs began to cross themselves, and to make many promises and protestations; and then the prince called for wine and pledged the Lord Abbat of Ely and the other English lords, lay and ecclesiastic, severally: and when they had all drunk wine, he broke up the conference and dismissed them in a very unhappy state both of mind and of stomach, for the storm had increased, and the wine was sour and bad. The royal Dane hauled in his anchors and set sail to get out of the Wash and from among the dangerous sandbanks. As soon as the Saxon lords got ashore at Lynn, and free from their exceeding great sickness, Thurstan said that he greatly feared a woeful error had been committed in inviting the Danes back again, and that a short time would show that the Lord of Brunn had been quite right in recommending the Saxons to trust to their own arms and efforts for their independence; but those lords who had voted for the invitation said that it was clear the Danes would have come back whether they had been invited or not, and that it was equally clear that England could not be saved without the aid of some foreign nation. These lords also thought that a crowned king like Svend Estrithson would not break his royal word, and that the prince his son would not act like Osbiorn, albeit he might, in the ancient manner of the Danes, be too eager to scour the seas and rivers and capture whatever he might find, whether it belonged to friend or foe, to Saxon or to Norman. Yet, truth to say, these lords were far