So he only turned for a moment to the thane, signing to the man to bring his horse.
"Nay, but a dull start often forebodes a bright ending to a journey.

We will go," he said, laughing.
"Now farewell, mother, for the last time." He bent his knee for her blessing, doffing his cap as he did so.
And even as he bent I was aware of a dull rumble, not loud or like thunder, but as if all the wains of the host of King Carl were passing toward us from far off.

Hilda stood by me at that moment, and she heard it.
For the life of me, though I knew that no wagons were near us, I could not help glancing round for them, and as I did so I saw the end of a thrall's mud hut across a field fall out.

The king leaped up and set his foot in the stirrup, and at that moment the earth heaved and shook under us, and the whole oaken hall and buildings round us creaked and groaned like a ship in a ground swell, while Hilda clung to my arm in terror.

Her horse, which the thane, her father, held, trembled and broke out into white foam all over, stumbling forward.
I do not think that the king felt it; indeed, as he was swinging himself into the saddle at the moment, he could not have done so.
But his horse reared almost on end with terror, and any less perfect rider must have had a heavy fall.