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AVhen watering his horses, therefore, at that little pond at 
Ancaster formed out of a portion of the old Roman ditch, 
and now shaded by a widely spreading willow, he prayed 
that the horse best calculated to bear him safely during his 
coming adventure might give some token to that effect ; upon 
which a grand steed, termed " Bayard," tossed up his head 
wildly and neighed again and again. On that horse then is 
our hero of the moment now mounted and on his way to the 
witch's usual place of resort. Soon he sees a mysterious 
light proceeding from a deeply-recessed hollow in the rock, 
whence rushes out a haggard creature with glowing yellow 
eyes, long grey hair streaming in the wind, and bony hands 
and feet armed with pointed claw-like nails, who deals him 
many a buffet. In vain does he cut at his assailant with his 
trusty sword, for she is like a gutta-percha figure, and his 
weapon is only blunted by his blows, until at last, with one 
tremendous blow, he succeeds in wounding her, but at the 
same time snaps his sword in two ! Then, maddened by 
pain, the witch has sprung upon poor Bayard's back behind 
the knight, intending to tear him from his horse, but the 
good steed flies, and still faster as the witch's claws deepen in 
the shoulders of the knight and the flanks of the horse ; 
when happily the former calls to mind a cross road near at 
hand, and if he can but reach this he is safe. He pulls the 
left rein, therefore, and away away bounds Bayard in that 
direction, until with one prodigious effort he clears the point 
of junction, and the witch falls dead before the leap is 
accomplished. The spot where this scene is said by tradition 
to have occurred is still called "Bayard's Leap." But 
real deeds of violence have been many times perpetrated on 
the heath. One was long recorded in the nave of Lincoln 
Minster to this effect : " Here lies John of Ranceby, formerly 
Canon of this church, who was with malice prepense 
nefariously slain on the ' Haythe ' (spelt thus) in the year of 
our Lord 1388 by William . God have mercy upon 
