sleeve, and I started and
turned. It was my own horse, who sought me in danger, and would
tell me in his own way that he was there. In that glance I noted
that his eye was bright again, and in a minute or two he shook
himself heartily. Thereby I knew that there was no more of this
terror to come, or he would have felt it yet.

"Thane," I said, "see. The skew-bald has not lost his senses like
that beast. Let us set Hilda on him. The marshal will help to shift
the saddle."

But Hilda came to herself again, and tried to laugh, saying that
there was never yet a horse of which she was afraid. Nor would she
hear of a change, for when her horse grew more quiet it was plain
that its terror had passed away. She took herself gently from my
arm, and spoke bravely now.

"What was it?" she asked me while Sighard soothed the beast.

"Why," answered Father Selred for me, "just what I was going to
tell the paladin--such an earthquake as I felt on a like day in
Rome years ago. But why it comes here in quiet England, where is no
fiery mountain to disquiet the earth, I cannot say."

"Father, it is the end of the world!" said a thrall, forgetting our
presence in his terror.

"Not so, my son. The thousand years of prophecy are not at an end
yet; and there are more foretellings of Holy Writ yet to be
fulfilled. It is just the old earth shaking herself after a sleep."

The man's face cleared, and he shrank back with a low bow,
frightened at his own boldness. All seemed to have found their
tongues again, and were telling how the matter had seemed to them
without waiting to know whether they were listened to.

"No hurry," said Sighard; "the king cannot keep up that pace, and
anywise will have to wait the pack-horse train somewhere. Let us
see all well first."

Maybe we waited for half an hour after that, for the ladies were
sorely frightened. We had the horses walked to and fro for a while,
and presently they were themselves again. And there came no more
trembling of the ground, while the clouds grew blacker, and a
short, sharp thunderstorm swept over us. It was good to feel the
cleared air again, and to smell the scent that rises after rain,
and to hear the song of the birds break out around us.

Yet on every face was a fear that would not be put aside. Men
thought that the earthquake boded ill for the journey of the king
and what might come thereof.

So when the rain had passed we rode away after the king, followed
by the pack