It came into my mind that here was one of the few floors which were boarded, the most being of beaten clay, or paved with great stones wonderfully.

So I trod again firmly in that place, and it seemed to me that the floor gave, somewhat.
I reached out for the torch which I had set on the sconce in the wall and looked at the floor, but why it creaked I did not make out.

The boards were of hewn oak, and how thick one could not tell.
"Fetch Offa the king," said a Mercian; "we had better tell him.

No use in gaping here.

We can swear that Ethelbert has not passed out of these doors." "No," said Selred quickly; "that were to wake the whole palace.