"There should be three thanes and myself, and you two and Erling will seem the right number when men look into this room presently." So again the silence of the midnight came down on us, and in the chill we waited for the return of Witred; and it was two hours before he came.

After him we closed the trapdoor, and the doors of the private rooms of the king who had gone, and then the Mercian planned that matter of the horses.
"Halfway to the forest," he told us, "some of the thanes would fain have returned to fall on this place, and take revenge and die.

Once I deemed that they would do so, but that fit passed from them.

Then they went on with me, and now they are safe.

It may be that they will get their horses, and if not, they will scatter and make their way home on foot.