led in stacks. The mound and ditch
had all been unturfed; and the mound was daily dug down to the level,
every spadeful being shaken loose; and now they came upon some few
traces of human use. In the mound was found a short and dinted sword
of bronze, of antique shape. A mass of rusted metal was found in a
corner, that looked as if it had been armour. In another corner were
found some large upright and calcined stones, with abundance of
wood-ashes below, that seemed to have been a rude fireplace. And in
one part, in a place where there seemed to have been a pit, was a
quantity of rotting stuff, that seemed like the remains of bones.
Walter himself grew worn and weary, partly with the toil and still
more with the deferred hope. And the men too became sullen and
ill-affected. It surprised Walter too that more than one of his
neighbours spoke with disfavour of what he was doing, as of a thing
that was foolish or even wrong. But still he worked on savagely, slept
little, and cared not what he ate or drank.

At last the work was nearly over; the place had been all trenched
across, and they had come in most places to the hard sandstone, which
lay very near the surface. In the afternoon had fallen a heavy
drenching shower, so that the men had gone home early, wet and
dispirited; and Walter stood, all splashed and stained with mud, sick
at heart and heavy, on the edge of the place, and looked very gloomily
at the trenches, which lay like an ugly scar on the green hilltop. The
sky was full of ragged inky clouds, with fierce lights on the horizon.

As he paced about and looked at the trenches, he saw in one place
that it seemed as if the earth was of a different colour at the side
of the trench; he stepped inside to look at this, and saw that the
digging had laid bare the side of a place like a pit, that seemed to
have been dug down through the ground; he bent to examine it, and then
saw at the bottom of the trench, washed clear by the rain, something
that looked like a stick or a root, that projected a little into the
trench; he put his hand down to it, and found it cold and hard and
heavy, and in a moment saw that it was a rod of metal that ran into
the bank. He took up a spade, and threw the earth away in haste; and
presently uncovered the rod. It was a bar, he saw, and very heavy; but
examining it closely he saw that there was a stamp of some sort upon
it; and then in a moment looking upon a place where the spade had
scratc