"I tried to do so; but he pulled out a bit of some hedge, which he said was a holy thorn from St. Joseph's tree at Glastonbury, and that he was there on pilgrimage when Alfgar saw him--saw him, mark you--at the Danish camp on the borders of Sussex; and I saw men, I won't mention names, who had more than once taken reward to slay the innocent, look as if they would go down on their knees to this holy thorn, which wasn't a holy thorn at all, but plucked from some hedge hard at hand. Did not Edric mock them in his heart! I should like to strangle him."