impulse.  I worked with all the might I could muster, but it appeared as though little were needful; and in a trice we scrambled to the top, when the whole party scampered off, leaving me to follow or not, as I chose.  I saw something tossed towards me, which glistened as it lay at my feet.  Stooping, I found a silver ring, beauteously bedecked with one glowing crystal.  Round the rim is formed a quaint legend, bearing a fair device, which some learned clerk may perchance decipher.”

The stranger drew from his finger a massy ring.  A little ferret-eyed monk, a transcriber of saints’ legends and Saxon chronicles, was immediately called.  He pronounced the writing heathenish, and of the Runic form.  A sort of free translation may be given as follows:—­

    “The Norman shall tread on the Saxon’s heel,
    And the stranger shall rule o’er England’s weal;
    Through castle and hall, by night or by day
    The stranger shall thrive for ever and aye;
      But in Rached, above the rest,
      The stranger shall thrive best.”

Gamel was troubled and perplexed.  The words were prophetic, evidently pointing to his own and his country’s fate, as well as to the destiny of the stranger.  He knit his brows, and his very beard coiled upwards with the conflict.  He appeared loth to allow of a supernatural agency in the affair, and yet the testimony and its witness were not to be gainsayed.

“I had not believed the tale, stranger, if this token had not confirmed thy speech:—­verily thou hast a better witness than a fool’s tongue to thy story.  That ill-omened losel may depart.  See thou fall not hastily into the like offence, else shalt thou smart from Childermas to All-hallowtide.  Hence! to thy place.”  Barnulf awaited not further dismissal, glad to escape the scrutiny of Nicholas with a whole skin.

A loud shriek was heard from the court-yard.

“My boy!—­Oh, my boy!” cried the almost frantic mother, as she rushed into the chamber, leading in Uctred.  He had been discovered on removing some of the huge piles of timber again from the hill, where, under a curiously-supported covering of beams and other rude materials, he lay, seemingly asleep.  The urchin looked as malicious and froward as ever, even when standing before his chief.

“And where hast thou been, my pretty bird?” said the old woman, as she began her vocabulary of signs.  But the boy looked surly and would not answer to the signal:  he drew down his black swarthy brows, looking eagerly and fiercely from behind their bushy curtains.  Suddenly, and with a fearful yell, he sprang forward, snatching the ring which Gamel was then giving back to the stranger.  With a wild and hideous laugh, which sent a shudder through the assembly, he drew it on his finger.  At this moment the expression of his countenance began to change, and some of the bystanders, over whom fear had probably waved the wand of the enchanter, saw his form dilate, and his whole figure expand into almost gigantic proportions.  A thick haze rolled through the apartment; then was heard a wild unearthly shout, and the vision had disappeared.