That hand once bold enough to strike a king from his throne was weak and trembling on this night.

At sound of the knock, the husband and father seemed to have suddenly changed.

The lion may sport and play with his whelps in his lair, but when the intruder enters his domestic abode, all is changed.

He rose, took up the light and went to the door.

He was a tall man and, judging from his charcoal-begrimed features, a blacksmith, and he wore a large leathern apron which came quite to his shoulder.