"Quick," I whispered; "down by the piles to the beach," and helped by the darkness of the night we scrambled off the path on to the ribbon of wet bank beneath it, where we crouched, perfectly concealed from the soldiers.
"Halt!" cried a voice above our heads, and the trampling footsteps ceased. "We be thirty men strong, and none too many for this business. Anthony, take you twelve and post them before the door. Six men go with Will Huet; see that none escape by the windows. There is a light burns at one yet. I will take the complement and go within. Now mark me well: our warrant is principally to the capture of Skene, alias Cleeve, and one Guido Malpas, that was of the Earl of Pembroke's household, but since discharged. He is a tall black man and a dangerous. It standeth upon us to apprehend the whole sort that here congregate together. They will make resistance and you will defend yourselves, but for the rest I have it in my authority that no blood be wasted needlessly. A live captive may prove useful; a dead villain is nothing worth. The password is At last. Set on."
Idonia had half risen from her place; she watched the retreating men as they filed along towards the Inn.
"I must warn him," she cried impetuously, and had clambered on to the turf path ere I could let her.
"What madness is this?" I urged, aghast. "You would yourself be arrested or ever you could get sight of that devil."
"Devil or no," she panted, while she struggled to unclasp my restraining arms, "devil or no, he is my guardian. Denis, I cannot stand by idle and see him taken."
"Sweetheart," I entreated her, "you can do nought, indeed. They be all armed men..."
"Hinder me no more!"
"Idonia!"
"Oh, it is cowardly, cowardly!"