Presently with the quiet of knowing all done that might be done on
us, the ealdorman and I went down to his house.
"Here is an end of tomorrow's wedding," he said sadly. "I do not
know how Elfrida will take it, for it is not to be supposed that
Erpwald will hold back from the levy, though, indeed, if ever man
had excuse, he has it in full."
I knew that he would not, also, and said nothing. He was yet
sitting on the settle where I had left him waiting for me, with the
level sun in his face as it sank across the Poldens, and he looked
content with all things.
"What a coil and a clatter has been past me, surely," he said. "I
doubt there must be a raid over the border, from what I hear the
men shouting."
"More than that, friend," I said gravely, looking straight at him.
"The Welsh are on us in all earnest, and tomorrow we must meet them
somewhere yonder, where the sun is setting."
He looked at me, and his face flushed redder and redder.
"What, fighting in the air?" he said, with a sort of new interest.
"War,--nothing more or less," answered Herewald with a groan.
"I am in luck for once," he said, leaping up. "Let me go with you,
Oswald; for this is what I have never seen."
"Hold hard, son-in-law," cried the ealdorman. "What of the
wedding?"
His face fell, and he stared at us blankly, but his cheek paled.
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