It took some time to extract the necessary information, not from any reluctance to speak on the old man’s part, but from his inability to put his thoughts into words.  Still when this was by degrees achieved, the information was of the highest possible importance.

The robbers, said the old man, were at that very moment not far away.  He had seen them sally forth on one of their nocturnal raids about dusk the previous evening; and they had returned home laden with spoil two hours before the dawn.  He was of the opinion that they had carried off some captive with them, for he had heard sounds as of bitter though stifled weeping as they passed his hut on their return.  Did he know where they lay by day?  Oh yes, right well he did!  They had a hiding place in a cave down in a deep dingle, so overgrown with brushwood that only those who knew the path thither could hope to penetrate within it.  Once there, they felt perfectly safe, and would sleep away the day after one of their raids, remaining safely hidden there till supplies were exhausted, when they sallied forth again.  The old woodman showed them the tracks of the party that had passed by that morning, and to the eyes of the Gascon brothers these tracks were plain enough, and they undertook to follow them unerringly to the lair.  The old woodman had no desire to be mixed up in the matter.  If he were to be seen in the company of the trackers, he firmly believed that he should be skinned alive before many days had passed.  He plainly did not put much faith in the power of these lads to overcome a large band of desperate men, and strongly advised them to go home and think no more of the matter.  But his interest was only very partially aroused, and it was plain that there was something on his own mind which quite outweighed with him the subject of the forest outlaws.

John would fain have questioned him about himself, being a youth of kindly spirit; but the moment was not propitious, for the Prince was all on fire with a new idea.

“Comrades,” he said gravely and firmly, “the hour has come when we must put our manhood to the proof.  This very day, without the loss of a needless moment, we must fall, sword in hand, upon yon dastard crew, and do to them as they have done.  You have heard this honest man’s tale.  Upon the day following a midnight raid they lie close in their cave asleep —­ no doubt drunken with the excesses they indulge in, I warrant, when they have replenished their larder anew.  This, then, is the day they must be surprised and slain.  If we wait we may never have such another chance.  My brothers in arms, are you ready to follow me?  Shall the eagles fail for lack of courage when the prey is almost within sight?”

An unanimous sound of dissent ran through the group.  All were as eager as the Prince for the battle and the victory; but the face of John wore an anxious look.

“We must not go alone,” he said.  “We must summon our comrades to join us.  They are bound on the quest as much as we.”