the distance.

In front of them the moon was shining over the burning farm; and they
saw a long host marching over the snow. When they had taken stock of
it, the Dwarf went down to those in the forest; and presently they
descried four horsemen above a herd of animals that seemed to be
cropping the grass.

As the men, in their blue hose and their red cloaks, were looking
around them on the edge of the pool and under the snow-lit trees, the
sacristan pointed to a box-hedge; and they went and hid behind it.

The cattle and the Spaniards came over the ice; and the sheep on
reaching the hedge were already beginning to nibble at the leaves,
when Korneliz broke through the bushes; and the others followed with
their pitchforks into the light. Then there was a great slaughter on
the pond, while the huddled sheep and the cows gazed at the battle in
their midst and at the moon above them.

When the men and the horses had been killed, Korneliz ran into the
meadows towards the flames; and the others stripped the dead. Then
they went back to the village with the herds. The women watching the
gloomy forest from behind the walls of the churchyard saw them
approaching through the trees and, with the priest, hurried to meet
them; and they returned dancing gleefully all amongst the children and
the dogs.

While they made merry under the pear-trees in the orchard, where the
Red Dwarf hung up lanterns as a sign of kermis, they consulted the
priest as to what they were to do.

They at last resolved to put a horse to a cart and fetch the bodies of
the woman and her nine little daughters to the village. The dead
woman's sisters and the other peasant-women of her family climbed into
it, as did the priest, who was not well able to walk, being advanced
in years and very stout.

They entered the forest once more and arrived in silence at the
dazzling white plain, where they saw the naked men and the horses
lying on their backs upon the gleaming ice among the trees. Then they
went on to the farm, which they could see burning in the distance.

When they came to the orchard and to the house all red with flames,
they stopped at the gate to mark the great misfortune that had
befallen the farmer in his garden. His wife was hanging all naked from
the branches of a great walnut-tree; he himself was mounting a ladder
to climb the tree, around which the nine little girls were waiting
for their mother on the grass. Already he was walking among the