hard by them, and they had been hamstrung, as one glance told me.  One man, too, in the dress of a housecarl, lay not far off, wounded sorely.  He saw me, and beckoned wildly to me.  And next I knew why, for out of the throng came three men dragging a lady roughly away from the rest; and as their comrades parted to let them pass, I saw another man on the ground, and with his back to a third a gray-haired noble, who held back the wild men with long sweeps of his sword.  He was trying to follow those who held the lady.

I saw all that at once, in a flash, for it broke on my eyes the moment I cleared the thickets of the cover; and as I saw I shouted and bore down on the throng, calling to my comrades to hasten.  Then the men knew that I was on them.

They yelled to one another, and, without waiting to see if more followed me, left the lady and the men who fought for her, and scattered, flying.  It seemed to me that the best thing I could do was to keep them in a mind to fly, and I rode after them.  One or two I rode down; and I heard a wild outcry as some met Werbode and Erling when they came up.  But they did not make for the wood, as I expected, but for the open heath.  They ran like deer up the swell of a rising ground and passed over it.

When I came to the top of that I saw a wide stretch of bare land before me, like miles of that which we had passed, hardly heather-covered, and stony, and over it fled the men.  There was no place where they could hide.  And yet before my very eyes they vanished.  One after another they went till but one was left, still flying.  I took my eyes from him for a moment, and he too was gone.  There was not so much as a bustard on the heath, which a moment before had been full of fleeting figures.

“They are trolls, thane!” cried Erling from beside me.

He, too, had seen the moorland and the men who had gone.  Then Werbode rode up to me, and he looked and gasped.

“They went over this hill!  I would swear it!” he said.  “Where are they?”

“I do not know,” I answered blankly, and, to tell the truth, with a bit of a chill down my back.  “I should be better pleased if I did.”

“See,” said Erling, pointing, “there are the mounds wherein they live.  They are trolls;” and with that he began to mutter I know not what heathen spells against them.

There were little low mounds everywhere, as I saw now.

“Trolls!” said Werbode, with a laugh.  “One can’t slay trolls.  I saw Wilfrid cut one down, and there he lies even yet.”

“Nay, but one can, if so be the sword is rightly charmed,” answered Erling.

“Well, they have gone,” said I.  “Do you two go and see after these folk they were attacking, and I will bide here to watch that they do not come back.”

“That is the work of the man, not the master,” quoth Erling.  “Here I bide, for I have runes which are of power against any trolls.  I am not afraid.”