FERNS. 33 



red glare was seen on the horizon, as of villages on fire, 

 and the shouts of furious men came remotely on the ear; 

 the fugitives rushed on, and Osmund stood as if senseless 

 for a moment, when a glad thought arose within him, and, 

 snatching up his oars, he rowed his trembling wife and his 

 fair child to yonder small island, covered with the great 

 Osmund royal, rising some feet in height towards the cen- 

 tre, but drooping round the margin, and extending in tufts 

 into the river, according to its mode of growth in marshy 

 places. Osmund moored his bark, and found, on treading 

 warily, that the ground was firm ; he then assisted his wife 

 to land, and enjoined her to lie down beneath the tall ferns ; 

 this done, and having commended them to the protection of 

 heaven, he hastened back. The small stock of wearing- 

 apparel was as hastily concealed in a narrow fissure of the 

 rock, from whence gushed an ample stream, and the distaff 

 thrown into a well. Scarcely, however, had the ferryman 

 returned to his cottage beside the river's brink, than a com- 

 pany of Danes rushed in. But him they hurt not, for they 



