thinly inhabited as these levels then were, the difference of a zone of the globe may now be experienced between a watery shore and a thick forest district, only a few miles inland.

Merdhin did not enjoy the change the less for not being surprised at it. A glow of comfort seemed to pass through his soul, as well as his limbs. After loitering some time in this nook, he asked himself why he should go further. There was no more likely spot for the forest animals to seek, or the wolves to follow them to.

He climbed the tallest tree he could find; and as he swung in the top, he felt some of the genial spirit of boyhood return to him.

Not a dwelling could he see, far or near. The sun was low above the tree tops to the west; and it was certainly the time when the cows should be going homewards, and the sheep be penned, and the swine collected for their night-feed; but neither cow bell, nor bleat, nor grunt could he hear.Again his spirits rose with the conviction that he was indeed alone in the good old British forest. He did not forget the commissioner's warning that the Danish raven was in the depth of every wood he could enter. He knew this only too well by the brooding of the dark bird at his heart: but he bade it defiance, and sat on his

perch, looking abroad with a free eye and a lightened spirit.

When the waters on the eastern horizon began to look their greyest and coldest, and the last yellow haze of the day shrouded the sun and the woods to the west, he came down, to make preparations for the night before the night should come. He left up in the tree his sheaf of short javelins (after putting two or three into his girdle), his sack of wolves' tongues, and his leathern night-cloak; for this was the tree he chose for his station, standing, as it did, on the verge of the clear space, and having a slight rise at its foot, which would facilitate the access of as many wolves as might choose to come and bay at him.

When he was half-way down, he paused and remained quiet. A wild sow, with her litter of very young pigs, was busy under the trees, rooting out the beech nuts, acorns, and dried grass which the squirrels and mice had buried in their winter holes. Merdhin had begun to feel hungry some time before; and now the sight of the young swine, and good spirits together, made him long for a hearty supper.

"That is a young sow," thought he. "Under a year, certainly; and she has farrowed early; and

every pig of all that litter must be a delicate morsel. One, two-fifteen in all. I don't know whose chase this is: but whosever it be, I may fairly have a supper out of it, for my service against the wolves. And out of all the troops of swine in this solitude, no one will be the worse for sparing me one little pig. And if it belongs to a lord Dane, as it no doubt does, he has no more right to it than I. And, in return for the hospitality that I myself have given to Danes, it is too contemptible a trifle to be worth a thought. And, above all, they have treated me in such a way that I am much disposed to do what I please, for the rest of my life, without minding any of them, so as not to put Hildelitha and the children into any danger."

When he had thus, with the speed of thought, put away one bad reason by bringing in another, till 'mere will remained, he cast a javelin, and struck down a delicate young grunter, -just such an one as the abbot at Thorn-ey would relish for supper, after a cold pilgrimage to meet his brother of Peterborough. In the midst of the outcry of sow and unhurt pigs, Merdhin slid down from his tree, and dispatched the little creature with his knife.

"Its offal will be good bait for the wolves,"

said he to himself: "and that is another reason

for my making free. And now"

But at this moment he heard a terrific rushing through the thicket. He at once apprehended the approach of the boar, and would have made for the tree; but there was no time. Once he saved himself by a spring to one side: but the beast wheeled round to attack him again and it was well that he had left his spear within reach. He snatched it, and drove it at random. Happily it entered the neck ; and the boar swerved just so much as that one of its tusks grazed Merdhin's high leathern hose, instead of tearing the flesh of his thigh. Again the animal turned upon him; but with less force: and it was easy first to evade him, and then to give him a fatal stroke, by plunging the knife into the back of the neck.

" I did not think-to have been driven on by the pig to kill the boar," thought Merdhin, " and in a domain that I know nothing about. But it is so much more bait for the wolves. I must make haste with my supper, while the light lasts; for there is scent enough now in this nook to bring all the beasts of prey in the forest about me."

He quickly gathered sufficient wood to make a glowing fire in the midst of the space: and he broiled some of the tender joints of his pig, listening the while to catch the first tokens of any movement in the forest.

"Already!" thought he, as a distant bark came on the wind. "The wolves grudge me my supper, after I have spread so good an one for them. I must carry my feast up, and eat it on my perch. If I make haste it will not be quite cold."

He did make haste; and his sack, his arms, his supper, and himself, were all safely lodged forty feet from the ground before any enemy appeared. When the enemy appeared, it was not in the shape of wolves, but of a man with a dog. Their entrance upon the scene was a spectacle which Merdhin himself could not help enjoying, though it foreboded evil and danger to himself. The dog sprang from the thicket, almost into the still smoking fire, and then turned his eye upon his master's, with a speaking expression of inquiry what was next to be done. His master looked round him, stirred the embers, as if expecting to turn up the secret from among them, examined the slain boar, cast a sharp glance into the neighbouring bushes, and then lifted his cow-horn to his lips, and blew his loudest blast. A response came from a distance; and then another; and the keeper blew another blast immediately under the tree where Merdhin sat.