the gulf. Hear the
decree of the Al-je-bal!"

Then Wulf's horse was led forward to the entrance of the bridge,
and from the further side was led forward the horse of Lozelle.

"Good luck, brother," said Godwin, as he passed him. "Would that
I rode this course instead of you."

"Your turn may come, brother," answered the grim Wulf, as he set
his lance in rest.

Now from some neighbouring tower pealed out the first long blast
of trumpets, and dead silence fell on all the multitude. Grooms
came forward to look to girth and bridle and stirrup strap, but
Wulf waved them back.

"I mind my own harness," he said.

The second blast blew, and he loosened the great sword in its
scabbard, that sword which had flamed in his forbear's hand upon
the turrets of Jerusalem.

"Your gift," he cried back to Rosamund, and her answer came clear
and sweet:

"Bear it like your fathers, Wulf. Bear it as it was last borne in
the hall at Steeple."

Then there was another silence--a silence long and deep. Wulf
looked at the white and narrow ribbon of the bridge, looked at
the black gulf on either side, looked at the blue sky above, in
which floated the great globe of the golden moon. Then he leant
forward and patted Smoke upon the neck.

For the third time the trumpets blew, and from either end of that
bridge, two hundred paces long, the knights flashed towards each
other like living bolts of steel. The multitude rose to watch;
even Sinan rose. Only Rosamund sat still, gripping the cushions
with her hands. Hollow rang the hoofs of the horses upon the
stonework, swifter and swifter they flew, lower and lower bent
the knights upon their saddles. Now they were near, and now they
met. The spears seemed to shiver, the horses to hustle together
on the narrow way and overhang its edge, then on came the black
horse towards the inner city, and on sped Smoke towards the
further gulf.

"They have passed! They have passed!" roared the multitude.

Look! Lozelle approached, reeling in his saddle, as well he
might, for the helm was torn from his head and blood ran from his
skull where the lance had grazed it.

"Too high, Wulf; too high," said Godwin sadly. "But oh! if those
laces had but held!"

Soldiers caught the horse and turned it.

"Another helm!" cried Lozelle.

"Nay," answered Sinan; "yonder knight has lost his shield. New
lances--that is all."

So they gave him a fresh lance, and, presently, at the blast of
the trumpets again t