which he hewed thence and cast there. Maybe the overhanging cliffs
are full four hundred feet high from the little white track which
winds at their foot, and from cliff top to cliff top is but a short
bow shot.

From where we waited one could look sheer down on the track below
us, and a man who was coming slowly along it seemed like a rat in
its run, so far off did he appear. At least, so said Erpwald, who
looked over, riding to the very edge. I had no wish to do so,
having been there before, and not altogether liking it.

Then he wanted Elfrida to look over also, and that frightened her,
and so we rode back and forth a little, for the wind was keen on
the hill, listening for sound of horn or hound in the cover.

One reason why we were so near the edge of the cliffs was that
Erpwald had not seen the place before, and had heard much of it;
and another was that as no deer could cross the gorge we should be
sure to have the hunt before us when one broke. There are tales of
hunted deer, ay, and of huntsmen also, going over the cliffs at
full speed, but that is likely only when the pace has been hot and
the danger is forgotten. I had no mind, either, to see some of
Herewald's young hounds cast themselves over in eagerness if they
chose to follow, as young ones will, the scent of some hill fox who
had his lair among the rocks and knew paths to safety on the face
of the cliffs, so that was yet another reason why we were in that
place, and I tell this because it is likely that some one may ask
how it was that I suffered my friends to bide in so perilous a
spot, seeing what happened presently.