CHAPTER VI: THE SAXON FORT.
A strict watch was kept all night, and several scouts were sent out.
These on their return reported that the Danes were feasting, having slain many cattle and broached the casks of mead which they found in the cellars of Edmund's house.

This they had not burned nor the houses around it, intending, as the scouts supposed, to make it their headquarters while they attacked the fort.
Edmund and Egbert agreed that it would be well to show the Danes at once that they had an active and enterprising foe to deal with; they therefore awakened their band, who were sleeping on skins close to the gate, and with them started out.
It was still two hours before dawn when they approached the house.

Save a few men on watch, the great Danish host, which the messengers calculated to amount to ten thousand men, were asleep.

Cautiously making their way so as to avoid stumbling over the Danes, who lay scattered in groups round the house, the Saxons crept forward quietly until close to the entrance, when a sleepy watchman started up.
"Who are ye ?" The answer was a blow from Egbert's battle-axe.

Then the leaders with twenty of their men rushed into the house, while the rest remained on guard at the entrance.
The combat was short but furious, and the clashing of arms and shouts of the Danes roused those sleeping near, and the men who escaped from the house spread the alarm.