t day
and night.

Alexander delays no longer to apparel himself straightway. When
he was clad and equipped he has returned to the tent of the king;
and all his comrades together with him. The queen, as I think,
had come to sit in the tent because she wished to see the new
knights arrive. Well might one esteem them fair; but fairest of
all was Alexander with the agile body. They are now knights; for
the present I say no more about them. Henceforth shall I speak of
the king and of the host which came to London. The greater part
of the folk held to his side; but there is a great multitude of
them against him. Count Engres musters his troops, all that he
can win over to him by promise or by gift. When he had got his
men together he has secretly fled by night; for he was hated by
several and feared to be betrayed; but before he fled he took
from London as much as he could of victuals of gold and of
silver, and distributed it all to his folk. The tidings is told
to the king--that the traitor is fled, and all his army with
him, and that he had taken so much of victuals and goods from the
city that the burgesses are impoverished and destitute and at a
loss. And the king has replied just this: that never will he take
ransom of the traitor, but will hang him if he can find or take
him. Now all the host bestirs itself so much that they reached
Windsor. At that day, however it be now, if any one wished to
defend the castle, it would not have been easy to take; for the
traitor enclosed it as soon as he planned the treason with treble
walls and moats, and had strengthened the walls behind with
sharpened stakes, so that they should not be thrown down by any
siege-engine. He had spent great sums in strengthening it all
June and July and August, in making walls, and bastions, and
moats, and drawbridges, trenches, and
breast-works, and barriers, and many a portcullis of iron, and a
great tower of stones, hewn foursquare. Never had he shut the
gate there for fear of attack. The castle stands on a high hill
and below it runs Thames. The host is encamped on the river bank;
on that day they had time for nought save encamping and pitching
their tents.

The host has encamped on Thames: all the meadow is covered with
tents, green and vermilion. The sun strikes on the colours and
the river reflects their sheen for more than a full league. The
defenders of the castle had come to take their pleasure along the
strand with their lances only