tence was immediately carried into execution. Cords were
produced, and in less than half-an-hour twenty breathless bodies were
swinging from the branches of the two trees indicated by the king.

"This will serve to deter others from like offences," observed Henry,
who had watched the whole proceedings with savage satisfaction. "And
now, Bouchier, how came you to let the leader of these villains escape?"

"I did not know he had escaped, my liege," replied Bouchier, in
astonishment.

"Yea, marry, but he has escaped," rejoined Henry; "and he has had
the audacity to show himself in the castle within this hour, and the
cunning, moreover, to set the prisoner free."

And he proceeded to relate what had occurred.

"This is strange indeed, my liege," replied Bouchier, at the close of
the king's recital, "and to my thinking, is proof convincing that we
have to do with a supernatural being."

"Supernatura!--pshaw!--banish the idle notion," rejoined Henry sternly.
"We are all the dupes of some jugglery. The caitiff will doubtless
return to the forest. Continue your search, therefore, for him
throughout the night. If you catch him, I promise you a royal reward."

So saying, he rode back to the castle, somewhat appeased by the
wholesale vengeance he had taken upon the offenders.

In obedience to the orders he had received, Bouchier, with his
followers, continued riding about the forest during the whole night,
but without finding anything to reward his search, until about dawn
it occurred to him to return to the trees on which the bodies were
suspended. As he approached them he fancied he beheld a horse standing
beneath the nearest tree, and immediately ordered his followers to
proceed as noiselessly as possible, and to keep under the cover of the
wood. A nearer advance convinced him that his eyes had not deceived him.
It was a swart, wild-looking horse that he beheld, with eyes that flamed
like carbuncles, while a couple of bodies, evidently snatched from the
branches, were laid across his back. A glance at the trees, too, showed
Bouchier that they had been considerably lightened of their hideous
spoil.

Seeing this, Bouchier dashed forward. Alarmed by the noise, the wild
horse neighed loudly, and a dark figure instantly dropped from the tree
upon its back, and proceeded to disencumber it of its load. But before
this could be accomplished, a bolt from a cross-bow, shot by one of
Bouchier's followers, pierced the animal's br