Then he went on: "Surely, my son, I believe you to be true, and that you suffer wrongfully, for never one who would lie told the evil of himself as you have told me.

Foolish you have been, indeed, as is the way of youth, but disloyal you were not." I was silent, and waited for him to speak such words again.

And he, too, was silent for a little, looking out over the marsh, and rocking himself to and fro as he sat on the tree trunk beside me.
"Watching and praying and fasting alone, there has been given me some little gift of prophecy, my son; now and then it comes, but never with light cause.

And now I will say what is given me to say.

Cast out you are from the Wessex land, but before long Wessex shall be beholden to you.