mightiest, if the saddle-girth and the stirrup-straps are cut under him?"

"He will fly out, as true as I stand here," said the youth.

"Ha! seest thou?" cried Matsko, with a thundering voice. "This is what I wanted to bring thee to!"

"Why so?"

"Because the Order is just such a knight."

And after a while he added,—

"Thou wilt not hear this from any common mouth—never fear."

And when Yasko could not understand clearly what the question was, he fell to explaining the affair to him, but forgot to add that he had not thought out the comparison himself, but that it had come word for word from the strong head of Zyndram.

⁠vol. ii.—17