House and barns were brightly illumined by the first light of the young day.

A stalwart smith kicked violently on the stout door; but the unbolted sides yielded so easily that he was forced to cling to the door-post to save himself from falling.

Others, Hornecht among them, pressed past him into the yard.
What did this mean?
Had some new spell been displayed to attest the power of the Hebrew leader Mesu, who had brought such terrible plagues on the land,--and of his God.
The yard was absolutely empty.

The stalls contained a few dead cattle and sheep, killed because they had been crippled in some way, while a lame lamb limped off at sight of the mob.

The carts and wagons, too, had vanished.