“Then,” said Hereward, “although Girolamo be away, we can hold good this house and laugh at their attempt to take it. Call in all the good folk of the township, and then up drawbridge, and make fast gates!”
“Under subjection, my Lord,” quoth Elfric, “I will say that I think that we can do better than shut ourselves up in the house to wait for their coming. I heard their plan of approach, and it is this: They are all to remain concealed where they are until it be dark. Then Ivo Taille-Bois is to march through the wood, and surround the house with one hundred men, while that bull-headed Torauld, who seemeth not to relish the fighting with soldiers so much as he doth the fighting with unarmed monks, is to lodge himself with the other hundred men on the skirts of the wood, so as to prevent the people of the township from coming to the manor-house.”
“Art thou sure,” said Hereward, “that thou knowest Norman French enough to make out all this sense from their words?”
“Quite certain, my Lord. I was close to them, and they talked loud, as is their wont. Nay, they talked even louder than common, being angered, and Ivo-Taille saying that as it was church business the churchman ought to go foremost; and Torauld saying that Ivo did not enough respect the lives and limbs of Norman prelates. Set me down this Torauld for a rank coward! They told me at Peterborough that he was as big as a bull, and for that much so he is; but from my hiding-place in the rushes I could see that he quaked and turned pale at the thought of leading the attack.”
“Thou wast ever a good scout,” said the Lord of Brunn, “but a wary commander never trusts to one report. We have lads here that know the paths and the bye-paths. We will have these Normans watched as it grows dark.”
In the mean time all the good people of the township were forewarned, and called to the manor-house. The aged, with the women and children, were to stay within those strong walls; but all the rest were armed, and kept in readiness to sally forth. Of the sixty merry men that had stolen the march upon Torauld and got to Peterborough before him, some had been left at Crowland and some at Spalding, and some had taken up their long stilts and had walked across the bogs to see their kindred and friends in Hoilandia. Only one score and ten of these tried soldiers remained; the good men of the township of Brunn that put on harness and were ready to fight, made more than another score; and besides these there was about half a score of hardy hinds who had followed the Ladie Alftrude from her home.
As it grew dark the scouts reported that the Normans were in motion, and that they were moving in two separate bodies, even as Elfric reported they would do. Then the Lord of Brunn went himself to watch their movements. He made out, more by his ears than by his eyes, that one body was coming straight on for the wood and the house, and that the other body was turning round the wood by a path which would bring them to a little bridge near the edge of the wood, this bridge being between the township and the manor-house. By his own prudent order lights had been left burning in one or two of the better sort of houses, and the whole town thus looked as it usually did at that hour; while bright lights beamed from every window of the manor-house, to make Ivo Taille-Bois believe that the Lord of Brunn was feasting and carousing and wholly off his guard.
“Thus far, well!” thought Hereward, as he ran back to the house. “It will take these heavy Normans a good length of time to cross the stream and get into the wood; and while Ivo is coming into the wood on the one side, I will go out of it on the other side, and catch this bully monk and his people as in a trap. And Taille-Bois shall rue the day that he turned his face towards Brunn.”
Leaving half a score of his best men in the house, and commanding all that were in the house to be silent and without fear, the Lord of Brunn sallied forth with all the rest of his merry men: and as soon as he and they were beyond the moat, the little garrison drew up the draw-bridge and made fast the gate. When he counted his troop, he found it to be not more than fifty strong; but every man of them was vigorous and well equipped; and there was truth in the Saxon song which said that every true Saxon in arms was equal to three Frenchmen, and that the Lord of Brunn never turned his back even upon six Frenchmen. Warned by Elfric, that best of all scouts, when Ivo was crossing the stream, and calculating his only time to a nicety, Hereward marched through a corner of the wood and took post on some broken ground near the end of the little bridge. His people were all as silent as the grave, and so they continued; nor could they be seen any more than they could be heard, for they lay in the hollows of the ground with their faces prone to the earth, and their bows and weapons under them: and the night was now rather dark, and the trees which grew close behind the broken ground cast a deep shadow over it. The Saxons had not been long in this their ambuscade when they heard a loud shouting of “A Taille-Bois! A Taille-Bois!” which came from the side of the manor-house; and the next instant they heard another loud shouting in their front of “Torauld! Torauld!”
“So so!” said Hereward, “the twain have timed their marches well! The monk will be here anon; but let every Saxon among us remain on his face until he cross the narrow bridge, and then up and fall on!”