d not tell,
for noises in these huge woods are so reverberated, that a stranger
is always at fault as to their whereabout; but they seemed to fill
the whole air. Presently there was a lull; then he heard the fierce
galloping of hoofs; and still louder shouts and cries arose, mingled
with shrieks and groans; and above all, strange and terrible sounds,
like fierce claps of thunder, bellowing loud, and then dying off in
cracking echoes; and red tongues of flame shot out ever and anon among
the trees, and clouds of sulphurous smoke came drifting over his head.
And all was still.

Gerard was struck with awe. "What will become of Denys?" he cried. "Oh,
why did you leave me? Oh, Denys, my friend! my friend!"

Just before sunset Denys returned, almost sinking under a hairy bundle.
It was the bear's skin.

Gerard welcomed him with a burst of joy that astonished him.

"I thought never to see you again, dear Denys. Were you in the battle?"

"No. What battle?"

"The bloody battle of men, or fiends, that raged in the wood a while
agone;" and with this he described it to the life, and more fully than I
have done.

Denys patted him indulgently on the back.

"It is well," said he; "thou art a good limner; and fever is a great
spur to the imagination. One day I lay in a cart-shed with a cracked
skull, and saw two hosts manoeuvre and fight a good hour on eight feet
square, the which I did fairly describe to my comrade in due order, only
not so gorgeously as thou, for want of book learning.

"What, then, you believe me not? when I tell you the arrows whizzed over
my head, and the combatants shouted, and--"

"May the foul fiends fly away with me if I believe a word of it."

Gerard took his arm, and quietly pointed to a tree close by.

"Why, it looks like--it is-a broad arrow, as I live!" And he went close,
and looked up at it.

"It came out of the battle. I heard it, and saw it."

"An English arrow."

"How know you that?"

"Marry, by its length. The English bowmen draw the bow to the ear,
others only to the right breast. Hence the English loose a three-foot
shaft, and this is one of them, perdition seize them! Well, if this is
not glamour, there has been a trifle of a battle. And if there has been
a battle in so ridiculous a place for a battle as this, why then 'tis
no business of mine, for my Duke hath no quarrel hereabouts. So let's to
bed," said the professional. And with this he scraped together a heap of
leaves, a