At the sound, men turned their heads and looked
in the direction whence it came, and many, by old instinct, slipped
their left hands to the hilts of sword and dagger, and felt that each
blade was loose in its sheath. As she galloped along, Queen Eleanor's
white mare threw up her head sideways with a snort and swerved, almost
wrenching the bridle from the Queen's hold, and at the same moment the
lusty cheering broke high in the air and died fitfully away. The
instinct of fear and the foreknowledge of great evil were present,
unseen and terrible, and of the three hundred ladies who reined in
their horses as the Queen halted, nine out of ten felt that they
changed colour, scarcely knowing why. With one common impulse all
turned their eyes towards the rising ground to southward.
There were strange figures upon the low hillocks, riding out of the
woods at furious speed towards the meadow, and already the deep lines
began to open and part to make way for the rush. There were men
bareheaded, with rags of mantles streaming on the wind, spurring lame
and jaded horses to the speed of a charge, and crying out strange words
in tones of terror. But only one word was understood by some of those
who heard.
"The Seljuks! The Seljuks!"
Down the gentle slope they came spurring like madmen. As they drew
nearer, one could see that there was blood on their armour, blood on
the rags of their cloaks, blood on their faces and on their hands; some
were wounded in the head, and the clotted gore made streaks upon their
necks; some had bandages upon them made of strips of torn-up clothes--
and one man who rode in the front, when his horse sprang a ditch at the
foot of the hill, threw up an arm that was without a hand.
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