is carried on board. To a larger fishing-boat are reckoned six lots
of hooks; each lot has eight to nine "Bakkes."] on board.

The open sea lay before them, almost as bright as a mirror, for the
wind was easterly. Near to them paused a horseman; he was partly
dressed like a peasant, with riding-breeches on, which were
buttoned down at the sides.

"Have you heard the news?" he cried to Otto. "I come from
Ringkjoebing. At Merchant Cohen's I have read the German paper;
there is a revolution in France! Charles X. is fled with the whole
royal family. Yes, in Paris, there is fine work!"

"The French are a wild people!" said the grandmother. "A king and a
queen they have beheaded in my time; now they will do the same with
these. Will our dear Lord suffer that such things be done to His
anointed?"

"There will be war again!" said one of the fishermen.

"Then more horses will go out of the country," said the stranger,
pressed Otto's hand, and vanished behind the sandhills.

"Was not that the horse-dealer from Varde?" inquired Otto.

"Yes, he understands languages," said the fisherman; "and thus he
is acquainted with foreign affairs sooner than we. Then they are
now fighting in France! Blood flows in the streets; it will not be
so in Denmark before the Turk binds his horse to the bush in the
Viborg Lake. And then, according to the prophecy of the sibyl, it