Sir John replied by drawing a handful from his pouch and throwing it on the embers which he had drawn out to the front of the hearth. The pungent smoke, which immediately arose in clouds, made the soldier wink his eyes, and when he could see clearly once more, Cobham and De Forest were still there, but Bertrand was gone. A second time the stifling smoke arose, and though the captain stretched his eyeballs almost out of their sockets, he only knew that Sir John and Cobham had vanished as unaccountably as their companion. The only thing he could do was to await, with all the patience possible, the time when yonder drunken log should become animate and release him from his bondage.
Had the captain's vision been able to penetrate the smoke, he would have seen that Bertrand, in leaning against the chimney-piece, touched a secret spring, which, as soon as the smoke of the herbs Sir John had thrown on the fire had obscured the view, opened noiselessly the narrow door, which was as noiselessly closed when all had made their exit. Could his eager gaze have converted those opaque stones into glass, he would have discovered the Lollards in a very narrow passage which wound along some distance, hollowed out of the solid wall. More than once they seemed to have arrived at a spot where their journey must terminate, but again a secret spring was touched, the obedient stones rolled back, and so they passed on till they came to a little turret-chamber, lighted by slits in the wall, which were concealed from all eyes without by the heavy screen of ivy which hung over them.
Here they paused and threw themselves down on some heaps of straw, and then, covered with their cloaks, slept as peacefully as if they had not a foe in the world.
CHAPTER X.
The Birds Flown to the Mountains.
The sun had risen high before any of the soldiers awoke, and even then they were helpless till their still sleeping comrade, who was to be their deliverer, should be aroused. This was at last accomplished by one of the men, who dragged himself along the floor so as to give him a hearty kick, but it was still some time before he came sufficiently to himself to comprehend the situation of affairs and release both himself and the others.
The first thing that their captain did, after he had stretched his stiffened limbs, was to discharge a volley of oaths at them, the Lollards, and the world generally. He had determined not to relate the whole of his midnight adventure to his men for two reasons: one was, that he was afraid of rousing their superstitious fears, and making them insist upon leaving instantly a place which they would surely believe to be haunted by malignant spirits; and the other was, that he was a little ashamed of being thus caught napping by his enemies, and did not wish the story to be told against him to his superior officer. He was, however, fully determined to ransack the castle before the time fixed upon by the Lollards for their departure, at the same time guarding all the places of exit.
He met with no better success than the day before; but soon a bright thought struck him, and his face glowed with malignant pleasure. He ordered his men into the woods to gather brushwood, and this, together with some straw and grain, he piled up in the apartments of the castle and set on fire. When it was fairly blazing, he mounted his whole troop, carefully removing all the horses from the stables, and placed his men in such positions that they might be able to watch all the roads, and be ready for instant pursuit should the Lollards attempt to flee.
He himself sat grimly on his war-horse, surveying the work of destruction; waiting till the noble men, smoked like rats from their holes, should be seized and brought triumphantly before him. He already imagined how he would dispose of the reward when he presented the three heads to the archbishop.
If this gallant soldier had been able to look downward a little way through the ground under his feet, his vision would not have been quite so rose-colored. Let us go back to the three men whom we left sleeping so quietly in the little turret-chamber.