Last sunnandæg I led my West Saxon warband up the Bristol Channel and then the River Severn into Mercia on a raid. It was all going so well until we were chased out of the area by a force of angry Mercians. We had no choice but to run back to our boat.
We had reached the forest edge and were almost at the shore when a small band of Mercians had managed to get in front of us to block our way.  Our two bowmen, Aethelbert and Tolan, immediately ran to the high ground and loosed their arrows... to no avail.
My fyrd warriors rushed in to attack theirs while I broke off to move uphill, accompanied by my body guards.
A lone peasant appeared at the top of the hill; hesitated for a moment then began to yell and charged towards me. My bodyguard, Raedwulf, blocked the Mercian peasants path and knocked him to the floor with a mighty bash of his shield. We thought we were home free to the shore but then the Mercians leader, a woman donning armour almost as beautiful as she was, surfaced at the hilltop and ordered her huscarls to attack.
With the fiery woman and her three bodyguards approaching and ever cautious of the large force on our trail, Raedwulf charged towards them shouting at me to “RUN!”.  I could see a gap between our immediate attacker and our peasants skirmishing some metres to our left...I took the opportunity and stormed through the gap. Sihtric, my other huscarl, followed closely. I felt strange fleeing battle but I was aware of our objective and I knew that Raedwulf; with his faceplated helm and large Dane-axe, would keep them at bay for a while. He may even slay one or two off them in the process.
As I fled, I looked across towards the fyrds skirmishing and saw our old man Wallis take a spear thrust to the stomach and fall. I shouted across for my men to flee.
Before I could turn again, one of our foes huscarls had caught up with me. I brought my sword up to meet his descending axe. One of my loyal peasants, Irwin, stopped running momentarily and threw his axe at the Mercian but it flew overhead. I am ashamed to say that this dribbling Mercian arseling got the better of me and his axehead hacked into my shoulder. I fell backwards as he pulled his axe free, ready for a second strike, a strike which he was not to make as Sihtric leapt over me and placed his axe violently into the face of the Mercian huscarl.
Behind that, I could see Raedwulf swinging his giant axe in a horizontal arc. His enormous frame imposing on his three opponents, though alas, it was not enough. One of the Mercian huscarls got through and cut Raedwulf down. They then rushed Sihtric and he suffered the same fate.
With the last of my dwindling strength, I pulled myself onto my side so that I could see in front of me. My fyrd warriors were being killed left, right and centre. Even my two bowmen had made good speed to get around the enemy but were intercepted and ended their lives impaled on Mercian spears.
As my blood and thus my life drained from me, I reflected on the disaster I had led my men to. Men who had trusted me and had believed in my promise of wealth. I was racked with guilt and felt a secondary pain of remorse on top of my physical wound.
Suddenly, I noticed a movement beyond the carnage...it was Irwin, my man who had thrown his axe at my killer, he had broken free and was outrunning the Mercians. With my dying breath, I witnessed him make it back to our rowboat and escape with his life, a pocket full of hacksilver, and I hope (from beyond the grave) the acquired knowledge of never underestimating the Mercian military.