The Keepers of the People

1126The lovers huddled to the side of the road, the people huddled into their doorways, wondering; it was early for him to be abroad, and he rode with a large escort. As the miles fell behind them, the wayfarers grew fewer, and the lights were out in the sleeping villages. They came into more thickly-wooded country near their journey’s end; and at last Prince Ralph halted his men half a mile from a village, their goal, and rode on with Althea in the dark of the trees. As he had said, the shadow of the towering mountain lay long on the village; the moon was already behind its bulk.

1127When they came to the village, they found it dark and empty; but a great din from a wood behind it, told whither the villagers had gone.

1128“Wait here,” said Prince Ralph, and riding back he brought up the horsemen. They rode through the village: there was not a scout to carry word of their coming. The middle of the wood was in a great flare of light; and at the word of command the horsemen drew their swords and broke up into four bodies to surround the lighted space. Prince Ralph and Althea rode at the head of the horsemen who were to come down on it from the further side; and it was some twenty minutes before the four bodies were in touch, and moving forward in a circle of which the glare of light was the centre. As they drew near, the din grew ear-splitting with the blare of horns, the clash of cymbals, the clatter of drums, and the roaring and shrieking of human voices. On the edge of the clearing Prince Ralph and Althea drew rein to see what was doing. A dozen yards from them stood a rude altar of new turf; and beside it was a dishevelled fury of a woman, shrieking hoarsely, “Victims! more victims! Bring your choicest! Bring your dearest!”