CHAPTER 38The journey was unspeakable. I do not think I could have borne its physical hardships had the spiritual pain been any less. What harm was the icy, cloying water lapping around my thighs after all the death and suffering I had just witnessed on Ely? My freezing, soaking discomfort was of no significance whatsoever when compared with the cause of a people broken forever. I had no right even to notice the painful abrasions on my feet, let alone my sliced-open wrist where the Norman’s sword had caught it, when Hereward could already be taken, lying bloody and unattended in some bare dungeon. What did mere exhaustion matter, when he might be dead?
So, we walked on through the night. Twice, I stepped into sinking swamp and had to be pulled out, covered in mud and filth, shivering to t
