inland, in the fair sunshine of late August. We had come suddenly
on it as we rode, and I reined up my horse to look with a sort of
cry of pleasure, so fair the blue water and dappled sky and
towering headland, grass and woodland and winding river, leaped on
my eyes. And in the midst of the still bay three beautiful ships
were heading for the land, the long oars rising and falling
swiftly, while the red and white striped sails hung idly in the
calm. One could see the double of each ship in the water, broken
wonderfully by the ripple of the oars, and after each stretched a
white wake like a path seaward.

My cousin stayed his horse also with a grip of the reins that
brought him up short, and he also made an exclamation, but by no
means for the same reason as myself.

"Ho!" he said, "what are these ships?"

Then he set his hand to his forehead and looked long at them from
under it, while I watched them also, unknowing that there was
anything unusual in the sight for one who lived so near the sea and
the little haven of Weymouth below us.

"Well, what do you think of them?" I asked presently.

"On my word, I do not know," he answered thoughtfully. "They are no
Frisian traders, and I have never seen their like before. Moreover,
it seems to me that they are full of armed men. See how the sun
sparkles on their decks here and there!"

But we were too far off to make out more than that, and as we