olbeaut, which stood on a narrow tongue of
land formed by a sharp bend of the Somme.

On entering the castle the knight gave an order to his followers, and
the prisoners were at once led to a narrow cell beneath one of the
towers. Walter looked round indignantly when he arrived there.

"This is a dungeon for a felon," he exclaimed, "not the apartment for a
knight who has been taken captive in fair fight. Tell your master that
he is bound to award me honourable treatment, and that unless he removes
me instantly from this dungeon to a proper apartment, and treats me with
all due respect and courtesy, I will, when I regain liberty, proclaim
him a dishonoured knight."

The men-at-arms made no reply; but, locking the door behind them, left
the prisoners alone.

"What can this mean, Ralph?" Walter exclaimed. "We are in the lowest
dungeon, and below the level of the river. See how damp are the walls,
and the floor is thick with slimy mud. The river must run but just below
that loophole, and in times of flood probably enters here."

Phillip of Holbeaut, on dismounting, ascended to an upper chamber, where
a man in the dress of a well-to-do citizen was sitting.

"Well, Sir Phillip," he exclaimed, rising to his feet as the other
entered, "what news?"

"The news is bad," the knight growled. "This famous scheme of yours has
cost me fifty of my best men. I would I had had nothing to do with it."

"But this Walter Somers," the other exclaimed, "what of him? He has not
escaped surely! The force which marched from Amiens was large enough to
have eaten him and his garrison.

"He has not escaped," the knight replied.

"Then he is killed!" the other said eagerly.

"No; nor is he killed. He is at present a prisoner in a dungeon below,
together with a stout knave whom he begged might accompany him until
ransomed."

"All is well then," the other exclaimed. "Never mind the loss of your
men. The money which I have promised you for this business will hire you
two hundred such knaves; but why didst not knock him on head at once?"

"It was not so easy to knock him on the head," Sir Phillip growled. "It
cost us five hundred men to capture the outer walls, and to have fought
our way into the keep, held, as it was, by men who would have contested
every foot of the ground, was not a job for which any of us had much
stomach, seeing what the first assaults had cost us; so the count took
them all to quarter. The rest he carried with him to