THE DRAGON AND THE RAVEN

C O N T E N T S

PREFACE
I. THE FUGITIVES
II. THE BATTLE OF KESTEVEN
III. THE MASSACRE AT CROYLAND
IV. THE INVASION OF WESSEX
V. A DISCIPLINED BAND
VI. THE SAXON FORT
VII. THE DRAGON
VIII. THE CRUISE OF THE DRAGON
IX. A PRISONER
X. THE COMBAT
XI. THE ISLE OF ATHELNEY
XII. FOUR YEARS OF PEACE
XIII. THE SIEGE OF PARIS
XIV. THE REPULSE OF THE NORSEMEN
XV. FRIENDS IN TROUBLE
XVI. FREDA
XVII. A LONG CHASE
XVIII. FREDA DISCOVERED
XIX. UNITED


CHAPTER I: THE FUGITIVES


A low hut built of turf roughly thatched with rushes and standing on
the highest spot of some slightly raised ground. It was surrounded by a
tangled growth of bushes and low trees, through which a narrow and
winding path gave admission to the narrow space on which the hut stood.
The ground sloped rapidly. Twenty yards from the house the trees
ceased, and a rank vegetation of reeds and rushes took the place of the
bushes, and the ground became soft and swampy. A little further pools
of stagnant water appeared among the rushes, and the path abruptly
stopped at the edge of a stagnant swamp, though the passage could be
followed by the eye for some distance among the tall rushes. The hut,
in fact, stood on a hummock in the midst of a wide swamp where the
water sometimes deepened into lakes connected by sluggish streams.