Brian Fitz-Count: A Story of Wallingford Castle and Dorchester Abbey

by A. D. Crake

"No, lord baron."

"Watch carefully lest there be other outlets. We must stamp this foul plague out of the land."

Then they stood and watched.

The flames crackled and roared; dense volumes of smoke arose, now arising above the trees, now entering the cave; the birds screamed overhead; the fierce men looked on with cruel curiosity; but no sound was heard from within.

At this moment the galloping of horsemen was heard. "Our brother of Kenilworth, doubtless."

But it was not. A rider in dark armour appeared at the head of a hundred horsemen.

"What are you doing?" cried a stern voice.

"Smoking lepers out."

"Charge them! cut them down! slay all!"

And the Wallingford men charged the incendiaries as one man. Like a thunderbolt, slaying, hewing, hacking, chopping, cleaving heads and limbs from trunks, with all the more deadly facility as their more numerous antagonists lacked armour, having only come out to slay lepers.