this. I will say
that I had half feared that she whom I loved would have been angry
with me.

Now on that night Osmund and I and Harek would ride to Heregar's
house over the shoulder of the Quantocks, with some message we had
to take to him from Alfred; and we went without any attendants, for
the twelve miles or so would have no risk to any one, and the
summer evening was long and bright.

Yet we were later in starting away than we should have been, and so
when we were among the wilder folds of the hills, where the bare
summits rise from wooded slopes and combes, we were overtaken by a
heavy thunderstorm that came up swiftly from the west behind us,
darkening the last sunset light with black clouds through which the
lightning flickered ceaselessly.

We rode on steadily, looking for some place of shelter; but it grew
very dark, and the narrow track was rough, and full of loose stones
that made the going slow. Presently the clouds settled down on the
hill crest and wrapped us round, and the storm broke afresh on us,
with thunder that came even as the darkness was changed to blue
brightness with the lightning flashes that played around us almost
unceasing. There was no rain yet and no wind, and the heat grew
with the storm.

Soon the nearness of the flashes scared our horses, and we had to
dismount and lead them, and in the darkness we lost the little
track among the heavy heather. And then there seemed to me to be a
new sound rising among the thunder, and I called to Harek, bidding
him hearken.

It came from seaward, and swelled up louder and louder and nearer,
until it passed over our heads--the yelp and bay of Odin's wild
hounds, and the trample and scream of his horses and their dead
riders. A great fear fell on me, so that the cold sweat stood on my
forehead, while the hunt seemed everywhere above us for a moment,
and then passed inland among the thunder that hardly drowned its
noises.

Then Osmund the jarl cried out:

"That was Odin's hunt. I have heard it before, and ill came
thereof. He hunts us who forsake him."

And out of the darkness Harek answered, without one shake in his
brave voice:

"Odin's hunt in truth it was, and the ill comes to Odin, who must
leave this land before the might of the Cross. We who bear the sign
of might he cannot touch."

Then I remembered myself, and the fear passed from me, and I was
ashamed. I had no doubt now that there was need for Odin's wrath,
seeing that he was