"No, the place is enchanted."
"Guarded by fiends."
"Listen."
Cries as of men and dogs came across the waste.
"They are the demons of the pit, who would lead us into the quagmires."
"They sound like human voices."
"Come what will, if hard frost will but freeze the ground, we will search the place," said the baron. "Come, my men, we can do no more; let us return--it is near nightfall."
This welcome order was obeyed by all the Normans with the greatest alacrity, for they dreaded the approach of night, and the terrors of the forest, which had already proved so fatal to their companions.
No further mishap befell them; weary and footsore they reached the castle, but the heaviest heart amongst them was that of Hugo.