John was glad enough of this promise.  As the eldest of this ardent band, and the one who would be most harshly taken to task did any harm come of the enterprise, he was anxious above all things to insure the safety of the Prince.  If Edward would remain beside him, he could certainly make sure of one thing —­ that he himself did not survive his royal master, but died at his side fighting for his safety.  The younger spirits thought only of the glory of victory.  John, with his feebler physique and more thoughtful mind, saw another possible ending to the day’s adventure.  Still his heart did not fail; only his unspoken prayer was that no harm should befall the brave young Prince, who was so eager to show the world that chivalry was not yet dead.

The brothers from Gascony had no trouble whatever in finding and keeping the trail the robbers had left behind them.  Slowly but surely they pursued their way through the labyrinth of the gloomy forest.  Neither John nor any of his companions had ever been here before.  The dense wood was gloomy enough to be almost terrible.  Craggy rocks were visible from time to time as the party proceeded, and the thickness of the forest was so great that almost all light was excluded.

At last a spot was reached where the forest-bred boys paused.  They looked back at those who were following, and beckoned them silently forward.  So quietly had the party moved that the stillness of the forest had scarce been broken.  Mute and breathless, John and his companion stole up.  They found that they had now reached the edge of a deep ravine, so thickly wooded as to appear impassable to human foot.  But just where they stood there were traces of a narrow pathway, well concealed by the sweeping boughs of a drooping willow; and that this was the dell and the path of which the old woodman had spoken the little party did not doubt for a moment.

“It is doubtless the place,” said the Prince, in a whisper.  “Let us softly reconnoitre whilst our forces are assembling.”

“I and my brother will make the round of the dell,” answered Gaston, in a like cautious tone.  “Sweet Prince, stay you hither, where the rest will doubtless find us.  It boots not for us to make too much stir.  Sound carries well in this still frosty air.”

The Prince made a sign of assent, and Gaston and Raymond crept away in different directions to make the circuit of this secluded hollow, and try to ascertain how the land lay, and what was the chance of capturing the band unawares.  In particular they desired to note whether there were any other pathway into it, and whether, if the robbers were taken by surprise and desirous of flight, there was any way of gaining the forest save by the overgrown path the exploring party had already found.

The dell proved to be a cup-like hollow of no very great extent.  On the side by which the party had approached it the ground shelved down gradually, thickly covered with bushes and undergrowth; but on the opposite side, as the Gascon boys discovered, the drop was almost sheer, and though trees grew up to the very edge of the dell, nothing could grow upon the precipitous sandy sides.