Page:A C Doyle - The White Company.djvu/358

326 swinging slowly from one side of the window to the other. Even in that dim light there could be no mistaking those features. Drawn, distorted and blood-stained, they were still those of the young fellow-squire who had sat so recently upon his own couch. With a cry of horror Alleyne sprang from his bed and rushed to the casement, while the two archers, aroused by the sound, seized their weapons and stared about them in bewilderment. One glance was enough to show Edricson that his fears were but too true. Foully murdered, with a score of wounds upon him and a rope round his neck, his poor friend had been cast from the upper window and swung slowly in the night wind, his body rasping against the wall and his disfigured face upon a level with the casement.

'My God!' cried Alleyne, shaking in every limb. 'What has come upon us? What devil's deed is this?'

'Here is flint and steel,' said John stolidly. 'The lamp, Aylward! This moonshine softens a man's heart. Now we may use the eyes which God hath given us.'

'By my hilt!' cried Aylward, as the yellow flame flickered up, 'it is indeed young master Ford, and I think that this Seneschal is a black villain, who dare not face us in the day, but would murther us in our sleep. By the twang of string! if I do not soak a goose's feather with his heart's blood, it will be no fault of Samkin Aylward of the White Company.'

'But Aylward, think of the men whom I saw yesternight,' said Alleyne. 'It may not be the Seneschal. It may be that others have come into the castle. I must to Sir Nigel ere it be too late. Let me go, Aylward, for my place is by his side.'

'One moment, mon gar. Put that steel head-piece on the end of my yew-stave. So! I will put it first through the door; for it is ill to come out when you can neither see nor guard yourself. Now camarades, out swords and stand ready! Holà, by my hilt! it is time that we were stirring!'

As he spoke, a sudden shouting broke forth in the castle, with the scream of a woman and the rush of many feet. Then