At that the bishop smiled and nodded, and I raised the standard, and waited.
Then Wislac stood up and crowed like a cock, and instantly the men began to turn and sit up, and as their eyes lit on the standard raised in their midst, became broad awake, each man rousing the next sleeper if one lay near him.

And there was the bishop, finger on lip, and they were silent.
"Verily I thought on the hard chapel stones," muttered Guthlac, the lay brother, behind me.
"It is the war chime, not the matin bell, you shall hear this morning," said one of his brethren.
"That is better--mea culpa," said Guthlac, clapping his hand on his mouth to stop his own warlike ejaculation.
Then came Wulfhere back, swiftly.

Barely a mile were they from the hill, he said, and coming on quickly in loose order.

Moreover, a horseman had passed, riding hard to the ships, doubtless to bid them be ready.

But that would take little time, for these vikings are ever ready for flight, keeping their ships prepared from day to day..