To and fro through the encampment raged the now thoroughly crazed amaloc, sundering and crushing all that it met. The long, red wool had caught fire from the blaze at the gateway and burned fiercely up over its shoulders. Wild with the pain of it, the beast ran hither and thither, seeking to escape from the flames. A two-horsed chariot was in its path at one moment. It scooped it up like a toy and carried it forward on its mighty tusks, the horses dangling in their harness. Then with a heave of its vast shoulders the monster cast the wreck in the air. Lying on his face, the driver closed his eyes and prayed wildly to his stars. At length, smelling the water of the river, the amaloc turned thither, to quench its agonies in the rushing stream. On it drove, across the camp, upsetting everything in its way. It reached the river to the left of one of the bridges. In its path a horse bearing a steel-clad rider slipped and fell. The groping trunk that sought the water found the man, plucked him from the ground, whirled him aloft, and dashed him against an abutment of the bridge so that his armor cracked like a nutshell and his blood ran down the stones. With a final shriek of fury, the amaloc plunged into the river. The waters closed over its upthrown trunk, and its mad career was ended. With it went the driver, well content to give his life for Ruthar. This one beast in the outpouring of its majestic strength had done more to shatter the power of Adlaz than had the legions of Ruthar in a month's fighting. * * * * * Soon after the death of the amaloc, night fell swiftly across the plains of Nor. The other beasts of Zoar, made uneasy by the experiences through which they had passed, and stirred by the screaming of their flame-maddened comrade, were in such a state that their master deemed it unwise to attempt to urge them farther in the darkness and against the fires. So he drove them back to the forest, and Ruthar camped on the plain. In the night was heard a clamor as of men who fought on the other side of the Thebascu, and when morning came it was seen that the host of Bel-Ar was divided. The royal standards waved over the bridge-heads at the crossing of the river. Farther down the stream, and opposite to the camp of Ruthar was gathered by far the greater part of the Maeronican host. When the dawn was full, a boat crossed the river, bearing messengers to Ruthar from the lords of the six cities which had fought for Adlaz. These heralds came to Oleric and asked what terms he would make them. "For," said they, "did we have to fight with men only, we would stand firm until the end, and with our united power sweep Ruthar from the field and crush her. But against such as the great beasts no men may war."