SPEARS OF DESTINY A STORY OF THE FIRST CAPTURE OF CONSTANTINOPLE BY ARTHUR D. HOWDEN SMITH AUTHOR OF "THE AUDACIOUS ADVENTURES OF MILES McCONAUGHY," ETC. NEW YORK GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY _Copyright, 1919, By George H. Doran Company_ _Printed in the United States of America_ TO ARTHUR SULLIVANT HOFFMAN IN A SPIRIT SOMEWHAT MALICIOUS CONTENTS CHAPTER I In Crowden Wood II Strangers at Blancherive III The Knife in the Twilight IV The Jongleur and the Greenwood Men V Hugh Gains a Friend VI The Swart Shipman VII The Sea-Wolves VIII Spears of Destiny IX The Comrades Take the Cross X How Hugh Was Tested XI The Green Gondola XII The Isle of Rabbits XIII In The Power of the Doge XIV The Bargain of the Host XV Hugh's Enemies Strike Again XVI The Imperial City XVII How Hugh Won Knighthood XVIII The Storming of the Walls XIX How the False Alexius Fled XX Treachery XXI How Hugh's Quest Was Ended XXII The Treasure of the Bucoleon XXIII How Bartolommeo Trusted a Strange Jailer XXIV How the Comrades Rode to Blachernae XXV Vengeance XXVI Lords of the World Epilogue SPEARS OF DESTINY CHAPTER I IN CROWDEN WOOD "Harrow! On, hounds! On, hounds! Take him, dogs! Out, harrow!" The aisles of Crowden Wood rang to the clamour of voices and the belling of shaggy hounds. Through the budding foliage of beech and oak and ash the spring sunlight streamed upon the leaf-brown mould that floored a winding ride. Around one end of this leafy tunnel scampered a fox, nose close to the ground, brush held high. His pink tongue dripped over slavering jaws and his little eyes were very bright, but his stride was tireless. One look he cast over his shoulder as he turned the corner--and as he saw the leading hounds leap into view, he stretched his pace until he seemed a red shadow flickering through the golden-greens of sunshine and foliage. "Harrow! Harrow!" Two mounted figures swept into the ride on the heels of the galloping hounds. Side by side they rode--a girl in a green doublet and soft deerskin breeches, astride a gallant black mare, and a tall youth, also in forest-green, upon a great grey stallion. Behind them followed a third horseman, a gigantic figure of a man, young, red-faced, intensely serious, above whose shoulder rose the end of a six-foot bow stave. "The scent is fresh," cried the youth. "Hear them give tongue, Edith."