idle of the horse,
which shook from head to foot, but never stirred. For some minutes
they remained thus, till suddenly the sky began to lighten, but with
no natural light. The colour of it, of the earth beneath and of the
air between was a deep, terrible red, that caused all things to seem
as though they were dyed in blood. Lighter and lighter and redder and
redder it grew, the long stand and the pavilions became visible, and
after them the dense, deep ring of spectators. Many of these were
kneeling, while others, who could find no space to kneel, held their
hands upstretched toward heaven, or beat their breasts and wept in the
emotional fashion of the country.

Yet not on them were the eyes of Hugh and Grey Dick fixed, but rather on
a single figure which stood quite alone in the midst of that great
arena where Cattrina and his horse should have been, where they had been
indeed but a little while before. The figure was clothed in a red and
yellow cap shaped like a cock's-comb, in black furs, a yellow robe and
white gloves and sandals. Yonder it stood, fantastic, fearful, its bare
and brawny arms crossed upon its breast, its head bowed as though
it contemplated the ground. There was not an eye of all the tens of
thousands of those who were present that did not see it; there was not a
voice that did not break into a yell of terror and hate, till the earth
shook with such a sound as might reverberate through the choked abyss of
hell.

"The fiend! The fiend! The fiend!" said the shout. "Kill him! Kill him!
Kill him!"

The figure looked up, the red light shone upon its stony face that
seemed one blotch of white amidst its glow. Then it stooped down and
lifted from the sand a knight's lance such as Cattrina had held. It
raised the lance and with it pointed four times, east and west and
north and south, holding it finally for a while in the direction of the
tribune, where sat the Doge with all his noble company, and of Venice
beyond. Lastly, with a quick and easy motion, it cast the lance toward
the sky, whence it fell, remaining fixed point downward in the earth.
Then a tongue of mist that had crept up from the sea enveloped it, and
when that mist cleared away the shape was gone.

Now the red haze thinned, and for the first time that morning the sun
shone out in a sickly fashion. Although their nerves were torn by the
unnatural darkness and the apparition that followed it, which all saw,
yet none quite believed that the