I had noticed a long rope used by the carters for fastening their loads to the wagons.  With this I returned, for it was clear that if we had to mingle in this business it would be necessary to have a mode of escape.  Of the rest you are aware.  We saw the knights coming out of the castle, with that portly baron, their lord, at their head.  We saw the block and the headsman upon the platform, and were scarcely surprised when you were led out, a prisoner, from the gates.  We judged that what did happen would ensue.  Seeing that the confusion wrought by a sudden attack from men perched up aloft as we were, commanding the courtyard, and being each of us able to hit a silver mark at the distance of one hundred yards, would be great indeed, we judged that you might be able to slip away unobserved, and were sure that your quick wit would seize any opportunity which might offer.  Had you not been able to join us, we should have remained in the turret and sold our lives to the last, as, putting aside the question that we could never return to our homes, having let our dear lord die here, we should not, in our ignorance of the language and customs of the country, have ever been able to make our way across it.  We knew, however, that before this turret was carried we could show these Germans how five Englishmen, when brought to bay, can sell their lives.”

They had not much difficulty in obtaining food in the forest, for game abounded, and they could kill as many deer as seemed fit to them.  As Cnut said, it was difficult to believe that they were not back again in the forest near Evesham, so similar was their life to that which they had led three years before.  To Cnut and the archers, indeed, it was a pleasanter time than any which they had passed since they had left the shores of England, and they blithely marched along, fearing little any pursuit which might be set on foot, and, indeed, hearing nothing of their enemies.  After six days’ travel they came upon a rude village, and here Cuthbert learned from the people—­with much difficulty, however, and pantomime, for neither could understand a word spoken by the other—­that they were now in one of the Swiss cantons, and therefore secure from all pursuit by the Germans.  Without much difficulty Cuthbert engaged one of the young men of the village to act as their guide to Basle, and here, after four days’ traveling, they arrived safely.  Asking for the residence of the burgomaster, Cuthbert at once proceeded thither, and stated that he was an English knight on the return from the Crusades; that he had been foully entreated by the Lord of Fussen, who had been killed in a fray by his followers; and that he besought hospitality and refuge from the authorities of Basle.

“We care little,” the burgomaster said, “what quarrel you may have had with your neighbors.  All who come hither are free to come and go as they list, and you, as a knight on the return from the Holy Land, have a claim beyond that of an ordinary traveler.”