Oswald, the stranger knight, also by this time fully comprehended the peril of the situation, and that if they would save their lives flight was their only resource. So promptly he sprang into the saddle, and immediately made for the gate, followed by Wulfhere. The two men-at-arms without the arena had been watching the movements of Oswald and Wulfhere with feverish anxiety, irresolute whether to rush in to effect a rescue or not. But no sooner did they see them make for the entrance than they pushed their horses amid the spectators, and vigorously plying the flats of their swords upon the shoulders of the churls who thronged and choked the way, they quickly cleared a passage; whilst Badger and his party continued to maintain a state of dire confusion in the enclosure. As soon as the entrance was passed the safety of the Saxons was assured, and at once falling into the rear of their leader, they dashed across the plain, and were lost in the woods ere any one comprehended for certain what strange things had happened.
Then the Abbot Vigneau strode up to De Montfort, the veins of his neck standing out with rage and his face livid with passion, and he hoarsely shouted,—
"I arraign thee traitor to thy king! and I will have thy head for this treacherous act! I tell thee if thou hast successfully conspired to murder my brother, I myself hold the letters thou wouldest give thy right hand to possess! I will use them to the full, nor rest till thou hast atoned with thy blood for thy treachery!"
Meantime, the scene which followed baffled description. The assembled company could not comprehend the charges made by Vigneau, and were bewildered at the tragic ending of what was designed for a day's festivities.
The condition of Alice was pitiable in the extreme. With returning consciousness she had seen the fiendish attitude of the Abbot as he fronted her father. She had heard the wild threats of vengeance, and a dim sense of uttermost calamity, hanging over her and her father, sent her back again into a swoon. I roused Jeannette and her companion from the state of helplessness into which they seemed to have relapsed, and, under my directions, Alice was carried to her room and laid upon her couch, whilst such restoratives as were at hand were applied to stimulate the laggard consciousness, which seemed as though it would never return.
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
THE SAXON'S REVENGE.
"E'en these, when of their ill-got spoils possess'd,
Find sure tormentors in the guilty breast."
Homer.