And now they had reached that portion of their circuit which led them opposite the chamber window of the lamented Ella, and Alfred gazed sadly upon it, when both he and Oswy started as they heard cries and moans, and sometimes articulate words, proceeding therefrom.

They listened eagerly, and caught the name “Dunstan,” as if uttered in vehement fear, then the cry.  “Water!  I burn!” and cry after cry, as if from one in delirium.

“It is Elfric! it is Elfric!” said Alfred.

“It is my young lord’s voice,” said the thrall; “he is in a fever from his wound.”

“What can we do?” and Alfred walked impatiently to and fro; at last he stopped.

“Oswy! if it costs me my life I will enter the castle!”

“It shall cost my life too, then.  I will live and die with my lord!”

“Come here, Oswy; they do not know the little postern door hidden behind those bushes; the passage leads up to the chapel, and to the gallery leading to my father’s chamber, where Elfric lies dying.  I remember that that door was left unlocked, and perhaps I can save him.  They are all feasting like hogs; they will not know, and if Ragnar meet me, why, he or I must die;” and he put his hand convulsively upon the sword which was dependent from his girdle.

“Lead on, my lord; you will find your thrall ready to live or die with you!” said Oswy.

At the extreme angle of the building there was a large quantity of holly bushes which grew out of the soil between the moat and the wall, which itself was clothed with the thickest ivy; the roof above was slanting—­ an ordinary timber roof covering the chapel—­so that no sentinel could be overhead.  Standing on the further side of the moat, all this and no more could be observed.

The first difficulty was how to cross the moat in the absence of either bridge or boat.  It was true they might swim over; but in the event of their succeeding in the rescue of Elfric, how were they to bear him back?  The difficulty had to be overcome, and they reflected a moment.

“There is a small boat down at the ferry,” whispered Oswy.

It was all Alfred needed, and he and Oswy at once started for the river.  They returned in a few minutes, bearing a light boat, almost like a British coracle, on which they instantly embarked, and a push or two with the pole sent them noiselessly across the moat.

They landed, made fast the boat, and searched in the darkness for the door; it was an old portal, almost disused, for it was only built that there might be a retreat in any such pressing emergency as might easily arise in those unsettled times; the holly bushes in front, and the thick branches of dependent ivy, concealed its existence from any person beyond the moat, and it had not even been seen by the watchful eye of Ragnar.

Alfred, however, had but recently made use of the door, when seeking bunches of holly wherewith to deck the board on the occasion of the feast given to King Edwy, and he had omitted to relock it on his return, an omission which now seemed to him of providential arrangement.