I've heard so--
FIRST DANE. We'll burn every home on English land before we go!
SECOND DANE. And drive every Englishman into the seas!
DANES. Aye! Aye!
GOODWIFE (_sobbing)._ I pray you--
CHIEF (_roughly)._ Come, get up! Get up and cease your weeping! I like
it not. Get up, I say!
[_Goodwife rises, trembling with fear._]
CHIEF. Now listen; we will not burn your hut, if you will tell us what
we wish to know.
GOODWIFE. I will tell you what I can--
CHIEF. Did King Alfred pass this way in flight?
GOODWIFE (_starting_). What? Our king in flight?
CHIEF (_angrily_). Come, no tears for him! Did he pass this way, I say?
GOODWIFE. No, my lord.
FIRST DANE. Do not believe her, chief! There's not an Englishman that
would not hide him from us!
GOODWIFE (_forgetting her fear_). Aye, and die for him!
CHIEF (_angrily)._ Say not such words to me! I am your king that is to
be!
DANES. Aye! Aye!
CHIEF. Go search within the hut, Danes!
[_Danes enter hut. They come out immediately bringing King Alfred._]
FIRST DANE. We found this man within, chief.
SECOND DANE. 'Tis only her husband, I think.
GOODWIFE (_indignantly_). _Husband_, say you?--that beggar!
CHIEF (_showing suspicion_). Ah, a beggar--!
GOODWIFE.
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