However, lest his horse should suffer, which, not being sufficiently covered by its bard to insure it from a chance arrow, might have been disabled at the very moment he needed it most, the knight spurred on as fast as possible, and having joined Longpole, descended the narrow way by which they had mounted.
Still for some way the arrows continued to fall about them, though with less assured aim and exhausted force; so that the only danger that remained might be apprehended either from the guns of the castle being fired upon them, or from Shoenvelt sending out a body of spearmen in their pursuit. Neither of these, however, took place, the inhabitants of the country round, and the commander of Cassel, being too jealous and suspicious of Shoenvelt already for him to do anything which might more particularly attract their attention; and to this cause, and this cause only, was Sir Osborne indebted for his unpursued escape.
CHAPTER XXXII.
How blest am I by such a man led,
Under whose wise and careful guardship
I now despise fatigue and hardship!
As soon as they were out of reach of immediate annoyance, the knight reined in his horse, and turned to see if Shoenvelt showed any symptoms of an inclination to follow. But all was now quiet: the gates were shut, the drawbridge was raised, and not even an archer to be seen upon the walls. Sir Osborne's eye, however, ran over tower, and bartizan, and wall, and battlement, with so keen and searching a glance, that if any watched him in his progress, it must have been from the darkest loophole in the castle, to escape the notice of his eye.
Satisfied at length with his scrutiny, he again pursued his journey down the steep descent into the vast plain of Flanders, and turned his horse towards Mount Cassel, giving Longpole an account, as he went, of the honourable plans and purposes of the good Count of Shoenvelt.
"'Odslife! my lord," said Longpole, "let us go into that part of the world too. If we could but get a good stout fellow or two to our back, we might disconcert them."
"I fear they are too many for us," replied the knight, "though it seems that Shoenvelt, avaricious of all he can get, and afraid that aught should slip through his hands, has divided his men into tens and twelves, so that a few spears well led might do a great deal of harm amongst them. At all events, Longpole, we will buy a couple of lances at Cassel; for we may yet chance to meet with some of Shoenvelt's followers on our road."
Conversing of their future proceedings, they now mounted the steep ascent of Mount Cassel, and approached the gate of the town, the iron grate of which, to their surprise, was slowly pushed back in their faces as they rode up. "Ho! soldier, why do you shut the gate?" cried Sir Osborne; "don't you see we are coming in?"
"No, you are not," replied the other, who was a stiff old Hainaulter, looking as rigid and intractable as the iron jack that covered his shoulders; "none of Shoenvelt's plunderers come in here."