Alleyne, all unnerved at so strange and unwonted a sight, shrunk
up against the wall with his eyes fixed upon the frenzied
creature, which came bounding along with ungainly speed, looking
the larger in the uncertain light, its huge jaws agape, with
blood and slaver trickling to the ground. Sir Nigel alone,
unconscious to all appearance of the universal panic, walked
with unfaltering step up the centre of the road, a silken
handkerchief in one hand and his gold comfit-box in the other.
It sent the blood cold through Alleyne's veins to see that as
they came together--the man and the beast--the creature reared
up, with eyes ablaze with fear and hate, and whirled its great
paws above the knight to smite him to the earth. He, however,
blinking with puckered eyes, reached up his kerchief, and flicked
the beast twice across the snout with it. "Ah, saucy! saucy,"
quoth he, with gentle chiding; on which the bear, uncertain and
puzzled, dropped its four legs to earth again, and, waddling
back, was soon swathed in ropes by the bear-ward and a crowd of
peasants who had been in close pursuit.
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