n; below them rolled
the Isis; across the river a couple of miles of flat meadow land lay
between them and the Synodune hills, and beyond the lessening range of
those hills, on the southeast, they looked, and behold the smoke of
the country went up as the smoke of a furnace.

CHAPTER XVII. FOR HEARTH AND HOME.

The inhabitants of Clifton stood on the terrace in front of the hall,
gazing upon the fiery horizon, wrapped in emotions of surprise and
alarm. Living as they did in an unsettled age, and far more prepared
than we should be for such a contingency, yet the sense of the rapid
approach of a cruel and remorseless foe struck terror into many
hearts.

But they had one amongst them to whom warfare and strife were a second
nature--one in whom the qualities which form the hero were very fully
developed. He gazed with sadness, but without fear, at the coming
storm, and to their late patient the inmates of the hall turned for
advice and aid in their dread emergency.

"What shall we do?" asked Herstan, gazing with indescribable feelings
at those who clung to him for support.

"The case is clear as the day," said the prince. "The storm I foretold
in vain has broken over the land, and the levies are not ready to meet
it. Listen; you may hear the sounds of alarm from Dorchester even
here. They see their danger."

The tolling of the alarm bells, the sound of distant shouts, the
blowing of trumpets rolled in a confused flood of noise across the
intervening space--a distance of between two and three miles--and
manifested the intense alarm of the city, so cruelly aroused from
dreams of peace.

"But what shall we do?"

"Defend the place if attacked; it is well adapted for defence. You
have the river on one side, and a cliff no Dane could scale in the
face of our battle-axes; on the other side, your earthworks and
palisades keep the foe at a distance from the main building. How many
able-bodied men are present now?"

"Happily we have all our force; the feast has brought them all here.
There would be from sixty to seventy men, besides a score of boys."

"And how are you provided with weapons?"

"Each man has a battle-axe, and there are scores of spears in the
armoury."

"And arrows?"

"Whole sheaves of them; and as good yew bows as were ever bent."

"Come, we shall do; and now about provisions?"

"You see we have bounteous fare now, but it would not last many days."

"Many days we shall not want it--many da