As soon as Nannienus went on board he asked the watch at the helm, a trustworthy Breton countryman, whether he had anything to report. "Nothing from here, my lord. Only behind Arbor a fire seems to be burning on the Hill of Mercury; or they are celebrating one of their Easter festivals. Look yonder!" "Yes, that is in one of the farms of the Alemannic settlers. Hark! What was that?" "Wild swans, my lord. They must have hundreds of nests in the reedy forests. They call and answer one another very often." "Then surely no men can be hidden there; the noble birds are very shy and wary. Who is coming to relieve you?" "I, Albinus, the veteran from Arbor." "Good: you will watch the first and second hours after midnight. Wake me before the gray of dawn." * * * * * The sentries in the camp above on the Idisenhang, and below in the tents brought from the ships, had shouted the hour of midnight without the occurrence of anything to disturb the sleepers, who were lying in the deepest repose, except that for a long time the noble dogs which the Tribune, a keen sportsman, had brought from Vindonissa and kept in an empty tent near the northern gate, had barked violently. They were costly animals of the purest British breed, which, trained in the arena at Rome to fight the aurochs, were now to test their skill and courage in the primeval forests. They could not be quieted, whether the guards patted or flogged them, and their loud, angry baying was heard in the ditch before the north gate, where the whole Batavian cohort was on duty. The bright flames and thick columns of smoke from their watch-fire rose from the ditch, now dry once more. Beyond it, on the north, about a hundred paces from the wall, Rignomer, with Brinno and two more of his countrymen, had been stationed as an outpost. "Do you hear the dogs?" asked Rignomer. "I'm not deaf," growled Brinno, "When they keep on incessantly, it means something!" the other continued mysteriously. "Of course it does. They are hungry. Or they have the little one's she-bear at bay." "She-bear? Nonsense! She's sleeping where others would like to sleep. No, no! Dogs don't you know that?--can see spirits and hear gods. There is something abroad. Between midnight and dawn the night huntsman rides over the tree-tops. I thought just now that I heard a horse neigh above me, beyond that distant hill--in the air." "Oh, pshaw! I never saw a horse fly yet!" "But _He_ flies on his eight-hoofed gray steed through the clouds and over the wind-swept forests, when he drives the woman of the woods before him. Hark, what was that? At the right!" "The hoot of an owl! Very near us!" "And there--one at the left." "Hark," cried a third soldier, "didn't that sound like metal on metal--the clanking of arms--close in front of us?" "No," said the fourth, "but I hear the faint trampling of a horse's hoofs. Hark! There are several. Now it comes again, nearer still! The foe!"