THE BLACK RIDERS The next day we jogged along, and many were our advices and admonitions to the Prince to return.

For we were now on the borders of his kingdom, and from indications which met us on the journeying we knew that the Black Riders were abroad.

For in one place we came to a burned cottage and the tracks of driven cattle; in another upon a dead forest guard, with his green coat all splashed in splotches of dark crimson, a sight which made the Prince clinch his hands and swear.

And this also kept him pretty silent for the rest of the day.
It was about evening of this second day, and we had come to the top of a little swell of hills, when suddenly beneath us we heard the crackling of timbers and saw the pale, almost invisible flames beginning to devour a thriving farm-house at our feet.

There were swarms of men in dark armor about it, running here and there, clapping straw and brushwood to hay-ricks and byre doors.
"The Black Riders of Duke Casimir," I cried; "down among the bushes and let them not see us! We must go back.