A tense silence fell upon the assembly, broken at length by movement of the King's body-guard of archers as they advanced to seize the two traitors. As for Lord Scrope, he sullenly submitted to be bound, but Grey's hand flew to his sword-hilt. The weapon flashed dully in the subdued light, but a soldier's hand grasped the knight's wrist in a vice-like grip; the steel clanked upon the oaken floor, and in a twinkling the second traitor was secured.
The fate that befel the three conspirators is a matter of history. Cambridge, Scrope, and Grey were brought to a hasty trial, and condemned on the 2nd day of August, 1415. The same day Grey was led on foot from the Watergate to the North Gate, and there beheaded. On the 5th of the same month the Earl of Cambridge walked the same route, while his meaner partner in crime, Lord Scrope, was drawn to the North Gate on a hurdle, where both paid the death penalty.
The earl's body was buried in God's House, in the town of Southampton, while the heads of Scrope and Grey were sent to York and Newcastle respectively, where they were exhibited as a stern warning to those who sought to plot against their lawful Sovereign.
On the same evening of the earl's trial Geoffrey and Oswald were walking by the shore near the Watergate, when their attention was drawn to a young man vehemently bargaining with the master of a fishing-boat.
"For forty marks I'll set thee ashore on French soil, young sir," exclaimed the seaman decisively. "Not a groat less."
"Then do so, for before heaven I have forsworn the land of my birth."
Instinctively Geoffrey gripped his comrade's arm. The voice was that of the ex-monk Olandyne.
CHAPTER XXI
HOW GEOFFREY FARED AT THE SIEGE OF
HARFLEUR
It was an unwonted sight that met the eyes of the burghers of Harfleur on the morning of the 14th day of August, 1415. From the Rade de Caen to the Rade de Havre the estuary of the Seine was dotted with sails—not those of peaceful merchantmen, but of the ships of the English invaders.