Beyond the other door lay the housecarls of Offa down the long hall where we had feasted, and within his own chambers there were a score or more of the young thanes of his bodyguard sleeping across his own doors.
Now we heard the still voice of Selred, and after it a stifled outcry, hushed almost before it arose, and then silence.

In a minute the door was pushed gently, and the father came back with a pale face.

Ho had told the thanes, and they were arming in silence.
Then they would come and see what we had seen.
"And after that ?" said Witred.
"If I were in their place, naught should stay me here," said the Mercian who had bided with me plainly.
"No," said Sighard savagely; "I have a mind to bid them burn this hall over Offa's head, and meet their end in the turmoil." "Thereby giving occasion to men to say that we wrought treason and were punished rightly, both ourselves and the king," said Selred coolly.

"That be far from us, Sighard." The old thane growled, and seeing that he was beyond reason, the priest set his mouth close to his ear and spoke to him.

Whereon he calmed at once, and a new look of fear came into his face.
"Hilda," he groaned; "I had forgotten her." Now the thanes came quietly through the door into the chamber, and one by one passed to that room where Ethelbert had been betrayed.
Presently they were all gathered there, and when they saw, there grew a sort of panic among them.
"Let us hence while there is time," said one, voicing the fears of the rest; "we are all dead men else.