Cedric sadly laid down the body of our old retainer; and I thought it fitting to make a hasty prayer for his soul’s peace. Then, as I rose, the stranger youth came forward haltingly. Methought he had a most winsome face, with honest eyes of blue and with brown and curling hair. I was about to offer some friendly greeting when our ears were affrayed by a loud blast of a hunting horn which came from a furlong’s distance in the wood.
Cedric’s face changed instantly; and he grasped at my elbow.
“Quick, Sir Dickon!” he cried. “Let us mount and away. Yon notes are the call of the robber chief to all his band. They’ll be here anon and slay us every one if we make not haste.”
“Come then,” I answered, and, seizing the youth’s hand in lieu of other greeting, I drew him swiftly toward his horse, and mounting my own, wheeled back into the pathway. Cedric, with one bound, was on his horse’s back; but the stranger was slower in his movements, seeming mazed and like one in a dream with the suddenness of these turns of fortune. I caught the bridle rein of his horse which had somewhat strayed; and then indeed he came quickly forward and climbed to the saddle. But a precious moment had been lost; and now, just as we emerged on the moor, there came a deadly flight of arrows from the wood. The archers were yet a hundred paces off; and low-hanging boughs did much deflect their shafts; but my horse was sorely stricken and reared and flung me to the earth. Another arrow struck mortally the stranger boy’s bay gelding, and a third pierced my doublet sleeve and drew a spurt of blood.
“Quick!” shouted Cedric. “Mount with me, both of ye. Quick for your lives!”
Reaching down, he fairly lifted the stranger to a place in front of him, while I seized his belt and madly scrambled up behind. Then the forester set spurs to his horse’s sides, and that splendid steed, despite his triple burden, was off with a bound.
But now, alas! the outlaws were at the wood’s edge. Another flight of arrows whistled about our ears; and the stranger, with a groan, clapped his right hand to his side and tried manfully to pluck away a shaft which was quivering there. His violent clutch served but to break the wood, and left the barb embedded in the flesh. Cedric threw one arm about him, lest he fall, and shouting to me to cling tightly to his waist, spurred madly on, blind to all but the path before him.
The robbers came streaming from the wood, and seeing that our one remaining horse was now burdened with the weight of three riders, dashed after us on foot with the hope, not ill-founded, of overtaking and slaying us. Some of these men of the greenwood can leap and run very like the deer they chase; and, had not our horse been the best and strongest that ever I bestrode, they might have gained upon us on the open heath enough to have made sure work of their archery.
But momently we drew away from them; and none of their whizzing shafts did further harm. Indeed, had not Cedric been fain to check our speed lest our burdened mount stumble in the rough and treacherous pathway, we might have shortly distanced them. As it was, we came again to the forest which we had left a quarter hour before, and the smoother road beneath the oak trees, with the shouting robber band a furlong behind us.
Then for the first time spake the youth that rode so unsteadily before us. Deathly pale he was, and his voice like that of one on a sick-bed.