"I do not anticipate there will be any pitched battles; the Welsh know that
they cannot withstand our trained soldiers. It will be a war of
skirmishes, of detached fighting, of surprises, long marches, and great
fatigues. Every valley in the country is to be harried with fire and sword.
They are to be made to feel that even in their mountains they are not safe
from us, and as they never take prisoners nor give quarter in the forays on
our side of the border, so we will hunt them down like wolves in their own
forests. The work must be done so thoroughly that for a hundred years at
least the lesson will not be forgotten."
In the last week of May Gurth moved forward, marching first to Hereford as
a more central point of attack, and then crossing the border and entering
Wales. The troops carried no heavy baggage. Meat they expected to find;
flour was carried on two hundred pack-horses. The force was about 4000
strong. The housecarls marched in a body, keeping solid order. Behind them
came the pack animals, each led separately, so that they could the more
easily make their way through forests or over broken ground. They marched
in lines, forty abreast. The light-armed levies, led by their respective
thanes, moved as they chose on the flanks of the trained troops or followed
in the rear.
When they halted on the first evening after crossing the frontier they
lighted their fires and bivouacked. Wulf and Beorn walked together through
the camp.
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