Then Dicul went his way homewards, with one of our men to lead his mule and carry some few presents for his people to Bosham, and after he was gone we had a quiet feasting in our hall until the light was gone.  And even as our feasting ended there came in a swineherd from the forest with word that from the northward there came a strong band of armed men through the forest, and he held it right that my father should be warned thereof, for he feared they were some banded outlaws, seeing that there was peace in the land.  That was no unlikely thing at all, for our forests shelter many, and game being plentiful they live there well enough, if not altogether at ease.  As a rule they gave little trouble to us, and at times in the winter we would even have men who were said to be outlaws from far off working in the woods for us.

Yet now and then some leader would rise among them and gather them into bands which waxed bold to harry cattle and even houses, so that there might be truth in what the swineherd told.  Nevertheless my father thought of little danger but to the herds, and so had them driven into the sheds from the home fields, and set the men their watches as he had more than once done before in like alarms.

Presently I was awakened, for I had gone to rest before the message came, by the hoarse call of a horn and the savage barking of the dogs.  I heard the hall doors shut and open once or twice as men passed in and out, and in the hall was the rattle of weapons as the men took them from their places on the walls, but I heard no voices raised more than usual.  Then I got out of my bed and tried to open the sliding doors that would let me out on the high place from my father’s chamber, where I always slept now, but I could not move them.  So I went back to my place and listened.

What was happening I must tell, therefore, as Owen has told me, for I saw nothing to speak of.

As the horn was blown, one of the men who had been on guard came into the hall hastily and spoke to my father.

“The house is beset, Lord.  Stuf blew the horn and bade me tell you.  There are men all round the stockade.”

“Outlaws?”

The man shook his head.

“We think not, Lord.  But it is dark, and we cannot fairly see them.  We heard them call one ‘Thane.’  Nor are there any outland voices among them, as there would be were they outlaws.”

Then my father armed himself in haste and went out.  The night was very dark, and it was raining a little.  Stuf had shut the stockade gates, which were strong enough, and had reared a ladder against the timbers that he might look over.

Close to the ladder stood Owen, armed also, for he had been out to see that all was quiet and that the men were on guard.

“There are men everywhere,” he said.  “I would we had some light.”

“Heave a torch on the straw stack,” my father answered; “there will be enough then.”