Presently they would wake me if my word was wanted.
But it was not needed, for the sunlight woke me. There was a growing
stir in our lines and across the water also, and I looked round. The
mists were yet dense, for there was not enough breeze to stir the heavy
folds of the banner, and Raven slept still with his arm round its staff.
Havelok was not here now, and I thought that he had gone to the camp
with Goldberga, and would be back shortly.
Then I saw that our rear rank was already formed up, as I thought, and
that is not quite the order of things, as a rule, and it seemed far off
from the stream. I thought that they should have asked me about this,
for there were some of my courtmen in that line.
And then I saw that in the line was no movement, and no flash of arms,
as when one man speaks to another, turning a little. And before that
line stood the form of a chief who leant on his broad spear, motionless
and seeming watchful. I knew him at once, and it was Cadwal, and those
he commanded were the dead. That was even to me an awesome sight, for in
the mists they seemed ready and waiting for the word that would never
come to their ears, resting on the spears that they could use no more.
It had been done by the marshmen in the dark hours of the morning, and
from across the stream I saw Alsi's men staring at the new force that
they thought had come to help us.
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