Then he said, with his hand smoothing the wet coat of his mule, which at any other time would have resented the touch with a squeal, but now did not heed him: "It minds me of one day in Rome when I was a lad there, at college, learning.

There is a great burning mountain at Naples, and it was smoking at the time.

Then there came--" "Way for the king!" cried the marshal who waited at the gate, and the good father had to stand aside with his tale unfinished.
Ethelbert came forth with a smiling return to our salute, and with him came his mother and the four ladies who were to bear us company on the way.

One of these was, of course, the Lady Hilda, and I dismounted and left my horse to a groom for the time, having promised myself the pleasure of helping her to mount.
At that moment the marshal, who was a thane set over all the ordering of the journey, went to the king and asked him if it might not be his pleasure to wait for an hour to see if the weather broke.

I think that the king was so taken up with parting words to the queen that he had hardly noticed the gloom and heat, and certainly he had not noted the uneasiness of the horses, which was growing more and more.