"Bring witnesses to my mark and Ednoth's!" cried Ulwin with a gobbling laugh. "Bring witnesses to the Abbot's right! The hundredmen will laugh thee to scorn. This Richard is a liar, friends: guilt hath sapped his boldness, or wealth and good-living, belike; he who was wont to be so ready with his fists now quails before an Englishman. What, dost thou smile? Aha, thou thinkest on the Frenchman at Westminster! What deemest thou we shall make of thy Duke?"
"What ye will, I doubt not," said Richard. "I am for law and order." He seated himself upon a root of the elm, and leant against the trunk. Every now and again he scanned what could be seen of the winding road about the hill of Lude.
"Hear me once more," said Edric the Wild. "Ye should make ready against aught that may befall while these your fruitful acres are your own and all unscathed. The tyrant hath left his spoor of fire and steel from the South Saxon land to London town…. Why, Gunwert of Mereston! What tidings? Steady, man—drink first, speak after!"
A weary, speechless man dropped from his horse to Edric's feet.
"They come!" he gasped, when he had swallowed a mouthful of beer. "Sighted beyond Stretton…. From Shrewsbury … in their hundreds—fully armed!"
Richard, deep in the shadow of the tree, took the boy Osbern's hand and drew him down beside him.
"Hasten, all!" shouted Edric, quivering with eagerness. "To every homestead where be weapons—tools—what ye can find! Hasten, hasten! Ride—gather your men together! We will beat them back at the ford."
All were on their feet, all running—every thane, every churl, every thrall. Some dashed into houses and sheds, and bore thence sickles, scythes, axes, picks, shovels, and mattocks, and ancient rust-caked weapons; some seized the horses tethered by the ale-house door and sprang upon them. Richard, still holding Osbern by the hand, entered the town in the midst of the first contingent of those who remained on foot.
"They have taken our horses," he whispered. "Silence now—we must not move nor breathe!"
The maltman's barn opened on to Ludford Street, and they slipped within and hid between the outer wall and a rampart of odorous sacks. Edric drove the whole body of his compatriots out into the open. After a quick consultation with Ingelric, he set off with the old man on the shortest route to Caynham. Some made towards Ashford, some towards the Moor. A few splashed through the ford over which the grey waters of the Teme glided in their winter flood.