“What would ye, O Saxons?” said Raoul; “know ye not that ye are breaking the king’s peace? Who is your leader, and what wants he?”
“I am their leader and lord,” quoth Hereward, speaking from that marvellous wooden tower which Girolamo had caused to be raised; “I am their leader and the Lord of Brunn, and all that I want is to get possession of my house and lands. So come forth, Norman, and fear not! Thou and thy men shall have quarter and kindly treatment. But if ye seek to resist, or let fly so much as one arrow upon these my good people, by all the saints of old England I will hang ye all on one gibbet.”
“What shall we do in this strait?” said Raoul to his seneschal.
“Take terms and surrender,” quoth the seneschal; “for the house cannot be defended against the host that is come against it, and against the engines of war that are raised against it. Three butts of that catapult would shiver the postern gate; that tower in front commands the battlements; the bridges of boats will give access to every part of the walls. This could not be done in one short night, except by magic; but magic is not to be withstood by sinful men-at-arms, and our chaplain is gone to feast with the monks of Crowland. Moreover, oh Raoul, we have consumed nearly all our provisions in our own feastings, and so should starve in a day or two if we could hold out so long—but that is impossible.”
“But,” said Raoul, “be there not some twenty or thirty Norman lances no farther off than in the town of Stamford?”[[128]]
“But they cannot cross the wide watery fens; and if they were here they could not charge among these accursed bogs.”
“’Tis all too true,” quoth Raoul, “and therefore must we surrender.”
The Norman knight spoke again to Hereward, who stood on the tower, looking like the good soldier and great lord that he was; and Raoul bargained to give immediate admittance to the Saxons, if the Saxons would only grant life and liberty to him and his garrison, with permission to carry off such arms and property as were their own.
“Life and security of limb ye shall have,” said Hereward, “and liberty ye shall have likewise when good King Harold comes back and peace is restored; but, in the meantime, I must have ye kept as hostages, and sent to Ely to do penance for your sins: your arms must remain with us who want them; but an ye brought any other property with ye beyond the clothes on your backs, it shall be restored upon your solemn oaths that ye did not get it by robbery here in England!”
“These are harsh terms,” muttered Raoul; “but, Saxon, thou art no knight.”