yellow breast, till it seemed to him that the
steel vanished and he could see nothing but the hilt.

Then a shock, a sound of furious snarling, and down he went to
earth beneath a soft and heavy weight, and there his senses left
him.

When they came back again something soft was still upon his face;
but this proved to be only the hand of Masouda, who bathed his
brow with a cloth dipped in water, while Wulf chafed his hands.
Godwin sat up, and in the light of the new risen sun, saw a dead
lioness lying before him, its breast still transfixed with his
own sword.

"So I saved you," he said faintly.

"Yes, you saved me," answered Masouda, and kneeling down she
kissed his feet; then rising again, with her long, soft hair
wiped away the blood that was running from a wound in his arm.

Chapter Ten: On Board the Galley

Rosamund was led from the Hall of Steeple across the meadow down
to the quay at Steeple Creek, where a great boat waited--that of
which the brethren had found the impress in the mud. In this the
band embarked, placing their dead and wounded, with one or two
to tend them, in the fishing skiff that had belonged to her
father. This skiff having been made fast to the stern of the
boat, they pushed off, and in utter silence rowed down the creek
till they reached the tidal stream of the Blackwater, where they
turned their bow seawards. Through the thick night and the
falling snow slowly they felt their way along, sometimes rowing,
sometimes drifting, while the false palmer Nicholas steered them.
The journey proved dangerous, for they could scarcely see the
shore, although they kept as close to it as they dared.

The end of it was that they grounded on a mud bank, and, do what
they would, could not thrust themselves free. Now hope rose in
the heart of Rosamund, who sat still as a statue in the middle of
the boat, the prince Hassan at her side and the armed men--twenty
or thirty of them--all about her. Perhaps, she thought, they
would remain fast there till daybreak, and be seen and rescued
when the brethren woke from their drugged sleep. But Hassan read
her mind, and said to her gently enough:

"Be not deceived, lady, for I must tell you that if the worst
comes to the worst, we shall place you in the little skiff and go
on, leaving the rest to take their chance."

As it happened, at the full tide they floated off the bank and
drifted with the ebb down towards the sea. At the first break of
dawn she lo