So on the morrow just before midnight came Osberne and Stephen and the
four others to the postern above-said. Osberne and the four were clad,
over their armour, in frocks and hoods of up-country fashion; but
Stephen was in his minstrel's raiment, save that he bore no fiddle,
and had a heavy short-sword girt to him under his cotehardy. The night
was moonless, but there was little cloud, so that there was a glimmer
of starlight. As they opened the door, came forth from the ingle a
tall man, unarmed as it seemed, and clad as a gangrel carle, and
Stephen without more ado stretched out his long arm and caught him by
the breast of his coat. The man stirred not nor strove, but said
softly: "Dost thou not know me, Stephen the Eater? I come to see the
child of Wethermel; he shall know me by the token of the Imposition of
Hands. And I am come to help him and all you." That heard Osberne and
spake softly to the others: "This is a friend and a stout-heart; he
shall be of all avail to us."
"Speak not," said Stephen, "but hold we on, and go crouching till we
be under the lee of the dyke." Even so did they, and Stephen led the
way, but Osberne came next and Steelhead with him; they spake not
together, but Osberne felt the stronger for having him beside him, and
his heart was full of joy.
So they clomb the dyke, and as they topped it they saw a weaponed man
on his feet betwixt them and the sky. Stephen stood up straightway and
fell a-whistling a merry tune, but softly enough, while he made a sign
to the others to fetch a compass and go creeping past this man. So
they did, while Stephen and the warder walked toward one another; but
so soon as they met, the warder knew his friend, and hailed him and
said: "Well, minstrel, thou art back again pretty soon; what is
toward, man?" Said Stephen: "Sooth to say, I went not all the way
home; for it came into my mind that maybe the Baron might call for me
again; and when it rains florins I am fain to have my hat under the
spout." Said the warder: "Thou art come in time, for the Baron is
somewhat ailing, and whiles he sleeps not well a-nights; it was but
last night when it was so, and he sends for me and asks me of thee,
and biddeth me fetch thee; and St. Peter! the uproar when I told him
that thou wert gone; and it was hardly that I escaped a whipcord
supper. Howsoever, his wrath ran off him in a little, and then he bade
me look out for thee, and if I find thee I am to bring thee to him at
any hour of day or night wherein the armour is off him: wherefore, see
thou, in happy hour art thou come. So abide me till I go and fetch a
fellow to keep my watch, and then will I go on with thee to my lord."
"Wait a while," said Stephen; "to say sooth I have hereby an old
carle, my uncle, and his son, a young swain, and both they are good at
song, and the older man a very poke stuffed full of old tales: how
were it if I brought them along?"
"It were good," said the warder, "for it shall, see thou, make a
change of disport for our lord, and that will please him the more. So
go now, bring up hither thy kinsmen, and I will see to my watch and we
will meet here straightway."
So then Stephen went to his folk, who were creeping nigher and nigher
the Great Bastide, and were as now in broken ground somewhat bushed, a
good lurking-place to wit. There he finds them, and bids the four
abide their coming back with their prey, which now he nowise doubted
of, and takes Steelhead and Osberne along with him, and brings them to
the warder; who laughed when he saw Steelhead, for he went for that
time all bent and bowed, and, as he deemed by what he could see under
the dim sky, ragged and wretched. Said he: "Minstrel, thou wert scarce
in luck to happen on this rag of a kinsman of thine. Hast thou no
better, man?" Said Stephen, grinning in the dark: "Abide till ye have
proved him. Trust me, he hath something better than sour curds in his
belly." "Well," said the warder, "let-a-be! As for the young man, he
seems like enough. Now then, fellow, for a pull at the florin-tree."
So they went, the four of them, toward the Great Bastide, and none
hindered them, deeming that they were of the service of the Baron.
Even at the door of the Baron's lodging the warder (there was but one
and a chamberlain) nodded friendly to the soldier and let them pass
unquestioned. They entered the chamber, wherein now was no man, as the
Baron would have it whenas he listed to sleep. The soldier went
forward on tip-toe, but Stephen trod heavily, and Steelhead laughed
aloud, and went straight up to the great man's bedhead, and fared to
pass his hand over his face from his forehead to his chin, just
touching him, but the sleeping man waked not. As for Osberne, he stood
betwixt the door and the soldier, and drew his sword forth from under
his carter's frock, but it was not Boardcleaver, for he had left him
at home. The soldier looked from one to another, and stared astonished
at their demeanour. Straightway then he had both Stephen and Osberne
on him at once: nor had he any senses nor might to strive with them,
who stripped his coat off over his head, gagged him, and tied him hand
and foot. By then they had done this, Steelhead had taken up the naked
Baron and set some of the warder's raiment on him, and done on him the
said warder's coat and sallet over all; and there stood the man of
worship, waked up now, as it seemed, but looked before him as if he
saw naught, even as a man who walks in sleep. Stephen the meantime
unstrung his fiddle and began to play a slow sweet tune thereon, and
let his big but melodious voice go with it, and thus they brought the
lordship of Deepdale to the door, and still he seemed of no avail,
save to walk on as Steelhead would have him.
So out they fared, and none hindered them any more than when they went
in; and they came to the bushed ground where lay the four townsmen and
stirred them, and so went on all seven with their new fellow the
Baron, who still walked on like a man in his sleep.
They made a compass about the warder who had taken the place of
Stephen's friend, so that he might not challenge them, and came fair
and softly to the dyke, and thereafter to the postern. There Stephen
knocked after the manner appointed, and the door opened and showed the
passage all full of armed men. But Stephen cried out: "All's well,
friend Dickon, and there shall be no sally out tonight, only take us
in, and bring me and Captain Osberne to Sir Medard, for we have
somewhat to show him."
So they gat them into the town, they and their new guest; but ere the
door was shut, Steelhead took Osberne by the skirt and drew him a
little aside and said: "Lad of Wethermel, in all ways thou hast shown
thy valiance, and I am glad of thee. Now I have come from the
hill-sides and the crannies of the rocks to look upon thee, and I must
get me back at once; for within a builded town I may not be. But I can
see that it will not be long till we meet in the mountains. So I tell
thee, when thou deemest thy need and thy grief to be as great as it
may be, hie thee to the little dale where first we met, and call on me
by the token of the bow I gave thee then, and presently thou shalt
have tidings: now farewell."
"Yea, but hold," said Osberne, "wilt thou not enter, even if it be to
go forth at once by another gate with much company? Else wilt thou be
tangled amongst all these foemen."
"Trouble not thyself about me," said Steelhead; "it shall not be hard
for me to go where I will in despite of any foeman."