I think that I cut down one or two after that, and then I felt Wulf
reel and prop himself against me. Then I had a score of men
crowding on me, and they clogged my sword arm and gripped my shield
and tore it aside, and then from behind or at the side one smote me
on the head with a club or a stone hammer, and I went down. I heard
one cry that I was not to be slain, as I fell.
Then Wulf stood over me for a little while and fought all that
crowd, until he was on his knees at my side, and my senses were
coming back to me. Then he fell over me, and the men threw
themselves on me and pinioned me and thrust something into my mouth
and then bound me.
I knew that Wulf was slain at that time, and that he had given his
life for me. That was what he would have wished to do, but in my
heart there grew a wild rage with these men and with myself for my
carelessness that had led us into their hands.
Now they dragged me into the cover, and thither also they brought
Wulf and the fallen men, and for a little while all sat silent, and
soon I knew what they were waiting for. I heard the voices of my
men and the very click and rattle of their arms as they trotted
slowly through the wood along the road, and I tried to shout to
them, but the gag would not let me. So their sounds died away
beyond the hill, and after them crept some of the foe, to see that
they did not halt or turn back, as one may suppose.
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