can carry, and fly," said
Raoul; "they will be here soon, if they have destroyed our men; and
there will be no safety nearer than Warwick for us."

"Can we abandon our post?" asked one.

"Not till we are sure all is lost," said another.

"Tristam, thou must remain here and watch, and warn us if any
approach."

"But how long shall I stay?" sobbed the alarmed boy.

"Nay, he is too young," cried the fugitive from the marsh;
"besides, it is needless. I know they are all coming upon us--they
are thousands strong instead of hundreds, as that liar, the guide,
stated. We must fly ourselves, for the time, and bid the monks, the
women, and children to fly also."

"Shall we burn the castle, lest it fall into their hands as a
stronghold?"

"Nay, that were to give up all; we shall return thither again, and
that soon; leave it open for them. The Norman lion will prove more
than a match for the English wolf in the long run."

"Onward, then--home--home."

And the dispirited men returned to the castle.

It was manifestly useless to attempt to defend the place; all that
could be done was to save their lives, and such "portable property"
as could be removed on the instant.

So the old men only returned to warn their astonished comrades, and
then gathering such household goods as they most valued, they
loaded the horses and oxen which remained, and journeyed to bear
the news to Warwick.

But before they went, Tristam was sent to warn the prior and his
confreres at the priory of St. Denys that danger was at hand.

"I care not," said that valiant prior of the Church Militant,
"though as many Englishmen were in the woods as leaves on the
trees; they shall be excommunicated if they interfere with us; our
weapons are not carnal."

So the Norman Prior and his monks shut their gates and remained,
while through the forest road the men-at-arms escorted all the
women and children of the village, the interlopers who had taken
the place of the banished English, towards the town of Warwick, and
its famous castle, where Henry de Beauchamp had recently been
appointed governor by the Conqueror, the first Norman Earl of
Warwick, and the ancestor of a famous line of warriors. We have
already met his countess at Aescendune, on the occasion of the
dedication of the new priory.

The Normans had all left the castle and village before sunset,
leaving the gates open and the drawbridge down, as they expressly
said that the English might be u