d just happened, for I was puzzled about
it, and wanted to get my thoughts to work. He had spoken of the
very thing that I had been warned of, for almost had I taken the
horn from the hand of a Briton--the Welsh girl of whom he spoke
once before. I had forgotten her, for I do not think that I had
ever seen her since she came here, until now. But at this moment I
seemed to have a feeling that her face was in some way familiar to
me, though only in that half-formed way that troubles one, and I
was trying to recall how this might be.

Erpwald went off to the guest chamber where he was lodged, and
presently I found our old leech and took him to see after him. He
went comfortably to sleep after his hurt had been dressed, and so I
left him. I will say at once that he felt no more trouble from it.

Then I went to the stables to see how fared my horse after the
day's work, and found him enjoying his feed after grooming. I
looked him over, but I could see no mark to show where the man
might have hurt him. But as I was running my hand along the smooth
hock to feel for any bruise, my groom said to me:

"Have you had a roll in a thorn bush, Master?"

"No.--What makes you think I might have had one?"

"I found this in his flank when I rubbed him down, and it was run
thus far into him."

He held out a long stiff blackthorn spine, marking a full inch on
its length with his thumbnail.

"Enough to set a horse wild for a moment," he went on. "And unless
you had fallen, I could not think how it got there."

"In which flank was it?" I asked, taking the thorn from him.

"The near flank, Master."

That was where the thrall ran against him, and surely the huntsman
was not so far wrong when he said that he did so on purpose. If so,
it was done at the right moment to give me a heavy fall, save for a
bit of luck, or maybe horsemanship. It was a strange business.

"I was through a thicket or two today," I said carelessly. "Maybe I
hit a branch in just the right way to drive it in. If we were
galloping he would not have noticed it. These little things happen
oddly sometimes."

Then the man began to tell me some other little mishaps to horses
that could not be explained, bustling about the while. And before
long I left the stables and went to my own quarters, with the thorn
yet in my hand. It had been cut from the bush, and not broken, just
as if it had been chosen. Now, if these hidden plotters wanted to
frighten me, I am bound to