"Are they safe to travel at night?" demanded the young lady again.
"No, noble lady," was all the reply she received.
"But do you mean that it is dangerous to pass through them in a boat?" inquired Alice.
"I cannot tell, madam," answered the man; but still he rowed on, and the page, laughing with the thoughtless glee of youth, whispered that the attempt was vain to make silent Martin give them any information, as he had never been known to speak ten words to an end in his life. By this time they were within the limits of the forest, and nothing surrounded them on every side but the trees dipping down their branches over the water. Alice, however, ventured one more question, to which the answer she received, though as short, was more satisfactory than those the boatman had formerly given.
"How far does the wood extend?" she demanded.
"Three quarters of a league, noble lady," replied the boatman, and again plied his oar in silence.
Whether Alice's voice, and his reply, had called attention, or whether the stroke of the oars itself could be heard at the banks, cannot be determined; but the man had answered but a moment, when a slight plash was heard from behind a little projection of the shore, on which an old oak had planted itself, spreading its roots down to the very river. Then came a rushing sound, as of something impelled quickly through the water, succeeded by the regular sweep of oars, and, in a moment after, a boat, rowed by two strong men, darted out into the mid-stream, and followed rapidly after that in which Alice sat. Still silent Martin, as the boy called him, pulled stoutly on without a word, but the superior power of the two men who pursued soon brought them alongside the boat, and, grappling her tight, they addressed the boatman in a tone rough but not uncivil.
"So ho, friend!" they cried; "stop a bit. What news from Ghent? How goes the good city?"
"Well! well! my masters," replied the boatman, still striving to impel his skiff forward, though the proximity of the other boat rendered the effort to use his oars unavailing.
"It is silent Martin," said one of the men, "and a fair dame, by the Lord! Who have you here, Master Martin?"