Now, Ayesha was standing staring upwards, so that although I could not see her veiled face, I guessed that her eyes must be fixed on the sky above the mountain top.  I was certain, also, that she was concentrating her fearful will upon an unknown object, for her whole frame quivered like a reed shaken in the wind.

It was a very strange morning—­cold and clear, yet curiously still, and with a heaviness in the air such as precedes a great fall of snow, although for much snow the season was yet too early.  Once or twice, too, in that utter calm, I thought that I felt everything shudder; not the ordinary trembling of earthquake, however, for the shuddering seemed to be of the atmosphere quite as much as of the land.  It was as though all Nature around us were a living creature which is very much afraid.

Following Ayesha’s earnest gaze, I perceived that thick, smoky clouds were gathering one by one in the clear sky above the peak, and that they were edged, each of them, with a fiery rim.  Watching these fantastic and ominous clouds, I ventured to say to her that it looked as though the weather would change—­not a very original remark, but one which the circumstances suggested.

“Aye,” she answered, “ere night the weather will be wilder even than my heart.  No longer shall they cry for water in Kaloon!  Mount, Holly, mount!  The advance begins!” and unaided she sprang to the saddle of the mare that Oros brought her.

Then, in the midst of the five thousand horsemen, we moved down upon the ford.  As we reached its brink I noted that the two divisions of tribesmen were already entering the stream half a mile to the right and left of us.  Of what befell them I can tell nothing from observation, although I learned later that they forced it after great slaughter on both sides.

In front of us was gathered the main body of the Khania’s army, massed by regiments upon the further bank, while hundreds of picked men stood up to their middles in the water, waiting to spear or hamstring our horses as we advanced.

Now, uttering their wild, whistling cry, our leading companies dashed into the river, leaving us upon the bank, and soon were engaged hotly with the footmen in midstream.  While this fray went on, Oros came to Ayesha, told her a spy had reported that Leo, bound in a two-wheeled carriage and accompanied by Atene, Simbri and a guard, had passed through the enemy’s camp at night, galloping furiously towards Kaloon.

“Spare thy words, I know it,” she answered, and he fell back behind her.

Our squadrons gained the bank, having destroyed most of the men in the water, but as they set foot upon it the enemy charged them and drove them back with loss.  Thrice they returned to the attack, and thrice were repulsed in this fashion.  At length Ayesha grew impatient.

“They need a leader, and I will give them one,” she said.  “Come with me, my Holly,” and, followed by the main body of the horsemen, she rode a little way into the river, and there waited until the shattered troops had fallen back upon us.  Oros whispered to me—­“It is madness, the Hesea will be slain.”