Page:A Book of Escapes and Hurried Journeys.pdf/42

 hand and on his left the ring of the Queen of France, which the people of the North believed to be a thing of witchcraft.

For a little he held the steps, for no man dared come within the sweep of his terrible sword or the glow of his more terrible ring. stones. At last some one thought of They were flung from a distance, and pre sently he was maimed and crushed till he died. Then, and not till then, the mob came near his body, shield ing their eyes from the gleam of the ring. One man, a fisherman, Zaffel by name, took his axe and hacked the finger off while the crowd cheered. Averting his head he plucked at the thing, and, running to the river bank, flung it far into the stream. The rest of the story of the ring is as wild a legend as ever came out of the North. It is said that Zaffel, going fishing next morning after the fury of the riots was over, came into a lonely reach of water found his boat standing still. and He looked up at the masthead, and there, clasping it, saw a hand lacking one finger. The mutilated hand forced the boat for ward against tide and wind, and when he tried the tiller he found that the tiller had no effect upon the course. All day he sat in the boat shivering with terror, till in the cold twilight he saw in front of him