re.
He belonged to Dorchester, and taking as much fancy to my company
as a man double his age can have pleasure in the ways of a lad of
eighteen, he asked me to ride home with him, and so stay in his
house for a time, seeing the new country, and hunting with him for
a while before I went home. And my father being very willing that I
should do so, I went accordingly, and merry days on down and in
forest I had with Elfric the thane, this new-found cousin of ours.

So it came to pass that one day we found ourselves on the steep of
a down whence we could overlook the sea and the deep bay of
Weymouth, with the great rock of Portland across it; and the width
and beauty of that outlook were wonderful to me, whose home was
inland, in the fair sunshine of late August. We had come suddenly
on it as we rode, and I reined up my horse to look with a sort of
cry of pleasure, so fair the blue water and dappled sky and
towering headland, grass and woodland and winding river, leaped on
my eyes. And in the midst of the still bay three beautiful ships
were heading for the land, the long oars rising and falling
swiftly, while the red and white striped sails hung idly in the
calm. One could see the double of each ship in the water, broken
wonderfully by the ripple of the oars, and after each stretched a
white wake like a path seaward.

My cousin stayed his horse also with a grip of the reins that
brought him up short, and he also made an exclamation, but by no
means for the same reason as myself.

"Ho!" he said, "what are these ships?"

Then he set his hand to his forehead and looked long at them from
under it, while I watched them also, unknowing that there was
anything unusual in the sight for one who lived so near the sea and
the little haven of Weymouth below us.

"Well, what do you think of them?" I asked presently.

"On my word, I do not know," he answered thoughtfully. "They are no
Frisian traders, and I have never seen their like before. Moreover,
it seems to me that they are full of armed men. See how the sun
sparkles on their decks here and there!"

But we were too far off to make out more than that, and as we
watched it was plain that the ships would make for the river mouth
and haven.

"We will ride down and see more of them," said my cousin. "I only
hope--"

There he stayed his words; but I saw that his face had grown grave
of a sudden, and knew that some heavy thought had crossed his mind.

"What?" I asked.

"