UNDER KING HENRY'S
BANNERS
CHAPTER I
HOW NEWS CAME TO WARBLINGTON CASTLE
It was shortly after dawn, on the morning of March 21, 1413, that a grizzled man-at-arms climbed the spiral staircase in the south-west angle of the keep of Warblington Castle.
He was dressed in a leathern suit, much soiled and frayed by the frequent wearing of armour, while on his head was a close-fitting cap, quilted and padded to ease the weight of a steel headpiece. He was unarmed, save for a long knife that was counterbalanced by a horn slung from a shoulder-strap of undressed hide.
Under his left arm he bore a flag, its folds gathered closely to his side, as if he feared to injure the cherished fabric by contact with the rough stone walls of the staircase; for the flag he had charge of was the banner of the renowned knight, Sir Oliver Lysle, of the Castle of Warblington, in the county of Southampton, and of the Château of Taillemartel, in the Duchy of Normandy.
At the one hundred and eleventh step the man-at-arms paused, and, raising his arm, thrust with all his might against an oaken trap-door, sheeted on the outside with lead. With a dull thud the door was flung backwards, and the old soldier gained the summit of the turret, which stood ten feet above the rest of the battlemented keep.
Sheltering from the strong north-westerly breeze that whistled over the machicolated battlements, the man-at-arms gazed steadily—not in a landward direction, where an almost uninterrupted view extends as far as the rolling South Downs, neither to the east, where the tall, needle-like shaft of Chichester Cathedral spire was gradually rearing itself heavenwards, nor to the west, where the sea and land blended in the dreary mud banks of Langstone Harbour—but southwards, where, partially hidden in wreaths of fleecy vapour, the almost landlocked waters of Chichester Harbour met the open expanse of the English Channel.
The sound of footsteps on the stone stairs caused the watcher to turn his attention to the newcomer.
"Good morning, fair sir," he exclaimed, as a lad of about fourteen years of age climbed actively through the trap-door.