“A D’Arcy! A D’Arcy! Help for the Sultan!” shouted the brethren, and the fray began.
Six of the men attacked them, and while they were engaged with these the other two slipped round and tried the door, only to find it fast. Then they also turned upon the brethren, thinking to take the key from off their bodies. At the first rush two of the fedaï went down beneath the sweep of the long swords, but after that the murderers would not come close, and while some engaged them in front, others strove to pass and stab them from behind. Indeed, a blow from one of their long knives fell upon Godwin’s shoulder, but the good mail turned it.
“Give way,” he cried to Wulf, “or they will best us.”
So suddenly they gave way before them till their backs were against the door, and there they stood, shouting for help and sweeping round them with their swords into reach of which the fedaï dare not come. Now from without the chamber rose a cry and tumult, and the sound of heavy blows falling upon the gates that the murderers had barred behind them, while upon the further side of the door, which he could not open, was heard the voice of the Sultan demanding to know what passed.
The fedaï heard these sounds also, and read in them their doom. Forgetting caution in their despair and rage, they hurled themselves upon the brethren, for they thought that if they could get them down they might still break through the door and slay Salah-ed-din before they themselves were slain. But for awhile the brethren stopped their rush with point and buckler, wounding two of them sorely; and when at length they closed in upon them, the gates were burst, and Hassan and the outer guard were at hand.
A minute later and, but little hurt, Godwin and Wulf were leaning on their swords, and the fedaï, some of them dead or wounded and some of them captive, lay before them on the marble floor. Moreover, the door had been opened, and through it came the Sultan in his nightgear.
“What has chanced?” he asked, looking at them doubtfully.
“Only this, lord,” answered Godwin; “these men came to kill you and we held them off till help arrived.”
“Kill me! My own guard kill me?”
“They are not your guard; they are fedaï, disguised as your guard, and sent by Al-je-bal, as he promised.”